| Summer Palace, Beijing |
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Visit the Summer Palace, built around a lake in the northwest of Beijing, and you'll soon get a feel for how the Empress Dowager Ci Xi in the late 1800s endured the city's steamy hot season. The palace is built around the Kunming Lake and visitors may stroll on the lake front, passing carved stone animals and vendors, with views of the palace rising pagoda-like above the water on the far side.
You may cross the lake in a boat that looks like a summer-house too, perched on a dragon's back. The roof is tiled like a mini-pagoda, the hull is moulded and painted with scales, and the prow is a realistic head with glaring eyes and bared teeth. You'd think children would be frightened, but the boat is usually full of families, and after all, this is China and these kids have seen dragons all their lives.
The lake freezes over in winter, here in China's cold north-east. It is said that the Empress had her servants cut chunks of ice from it and store these in underground cellars where they remained until she needed chilled drinks the following summer. More details....
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