The Summer Palace

When my friend Bonnie was here we went to The Summer Palace.  I didn't know much about it except that it was one of the big tourist attractions here in Beijing.  The Summer Palace was absolutely gorgeous!  By far it is my most favorite place here in Beijing.  We entered through the North Gate and walked through a wooded area that had a lot of pathways you could take to look at various buildings and structures.  The architecture on all of them was very traditional Chinese and very beautiful.  Almost every piece was painted red and green.  The ceilings in most of the buildings were painted as well with traditional scenes.  Bonnie and I walked through various places and then we finally arrived at THE LAKE!  The lake was absolutely GORGEOUS!  It was enormous and frozen over so it had a lovely, icy, white appearance.  The Palace itself sits in the trees to the right and is so beautiful.  There was a large bridge over part of the lake to take you to a very small island with another small home and Bonnie and I went to the lake level and sat on these little chairs with skates on the bottom and used sticks to push ourselves around on the ice!  It was super fun! I just enjoyed the beauty and peacefulness of the place.  I loved the summer palace!  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace