68,000 People

The Summer Palace had 68,000 people walk through its gates before I arrived there at ten to one in the afternoon on a not uncommon smoky day. Latching onto the end of my tour group as they quickly moved inside the gates I have to wonder if I would see all 68,000 people.

Listening to the tour guide, I struggled to understand what she was saying. Her English was heavily accented and it was only when I listened carefully I could understand what she was saying. But even then surely it couldn’t be right; The Summer Palace is mainly comprised of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake. The whole area under the name of the Summer Palace is 2.9 square kilometres and three quarters of it was water.

She informed us that the whole of Kunming Lake was manmade. For years, hundreds and possibly thousands, of people had dug out a lake big enough, and filled it water, from where I wasn’t quite sure. Quickly packing all the excess dirt together on the side, to make Longevity Hill, a 60 metre high hill.

In the incredible mark of ingenuity seemed even more so as it looked completely natural. There was not a single indication that this was ever anything than it was. That the lake filled with tourists on strange looking dragon boats, the lilies and trees dipping over the murky water hadn’t always been there.

Walking around Kunming Lake there was corridors and twisting and turning avenues that if there hadn’t been a tour guide leading the way I was sure I could have gotten lost for hours. This Summer Palace was bigger than any city, all skirting around a lake of water. The smog was still strong around the air but here it seemed less dropping down on your shoulders and instead gave the illusion of just perhaps a cloudy day.

Those corridors actually held more than they seemed our tour guide told us as we walked along what she said was the longest corridor in the world. I can understand – every time we turned a corner it kept going. Children ran along ducking in between tour groups as the older Chinese sat outside of the corridor on the many public benches watching the shuffling crowd, smoking, the smoke drifting around their faces obscuring their expressions.

But even more than the longest corridor in the world, it had to be one of the more ornate. There wasn’t a single part of the half walls, handhelds and roof of this corridor that hadn’t been decorated. Flowing dragons, still colourful flowers, Mandarin symbols, greenery, even though it was all sightly faded, still told a story as you walked along.