Consider this story:  A ruthless leader comes to power in a non-Western country.  Over the years, this leader becomes notorious for killing family members, squashing internal dissent, and diverting money to build extravagant palaces.  But the country is militarily weak; it is easily invaded by a coalition of Western forces, leading its humiliated people to regularly demonstrate against Westerners.  Later, a new coalition (including American and British forces) invades the country, again with ease, destroying the palaces, occupying the capital, and creating domestic dissent and uprising.  Sound familiar?  Actually, that story is about Empress Dowager Cixi, ruler of China for nearly fifty years until 1908.  Her most opulant palace, destroyed by Western forces after the Boxer Rebellion over a hundred years ago and since restored, was the Summer Palace in Beijing.  Pictured above is a bronze dragon in front of the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, the political center of the palace, where treaties granting concessions to those Western powers were signed.

Winter jasmine in bloom nearby at the Eastern Palace Gate, main entrance to the Summer Palace.  I’ve visited a few times now (as shown on another page of this web site), but always in the middle of winter or in very late winter; one of these days, I hope to visit the Summer Palace in summer.

Detail of a crane - a symbol of peace - on a giant bronze vase near the same location.  Phoenixes and cranes were important symbols to Cixi; she had them placed in positions of prominance over the traditional dragons symbolizing the emperor, to indicate that her own power overrode that of the emperor.  China did have emperors during her time, but the true power was in her hands.

The Pavilion of Buddhist Fragrance, centerpiece of the Summer Palace.  Clear days are very rare in Beijing - a polluted yellow haze normally envelopes the city, in varying degrees of thickness - but a storm cleared the skies for three days, sending me sightseeing for this collection of photographs.

The Long Corridor, which stretches half a mile across the front of the Pavilion of Buddhist Fragrance, with paintings on the side beams below the roof.

The Long Corridor opens onto four small pavilions along its path, representing the four seasons.  This is a detail of roof tiles near the Liujia Pavilion, representing spring.

Row after row after row of paintings inside the Long Corridor.  14,000 paintings grace the side and cross beams, and this shows just one section of perhaps fifty cross beam paintings.

Many paintings within the corridor depict scenes from the famous novels of China, such as this one from “A Dream of Red Mansions.”  In this scene, two women composing poetry aloud one moonlit evening see a dark form on the water before them; one throws a stone at it, and a crane, its form revealed, flies off - inspiring another poem from one of the women.

Late winter turns into early spring, and trees begin to blossom around the Summer Palace, in mid-March.

Rooftop of the Cloud Dispelling Hall, down the hill in front of the Pavilion of Buddhist Fragrance.  The Summer Palace is not the most popular tourist attraction in Beijing - that honor goes to the Forbidden City, and perhaps even the Temple of Heaven - but it is the most scenic.

Flowering trees along a hillside behind the main structures of the Summer Palace.  The grounds of the palace are huge, and I have not yet taken advantage of the many opportunities for photographs away from the main structures; so many more photographs from future visits to the Summer Palace will come.