A day in Beijing

We arrived in China and had a long day in Beijing.  After some wasted hours at the airport we were allowed out for the day, with a temporary visa, into the city.  We navigated the metro and took ourselves to the Summer Palace.  Situated in the northwest suburb of the city, the Summer Palace covers an area of over 290 hectares.  It was built by Emperor Qianlong in 1750 to celebrate his mother's birthday and it was later used as a pleasure garden for emperors and empresses.  It has been burned down and seriously damaged on two different occasions by Anglo-French Allied Forces and was rebuilt in 1902.  Only since 1924 has the park been opened to the general public and enjoyed by ordinary people.  It is on the Unesco World Heritage List.  It is a popular place for Chinese people and tourists to visit.

These are all photos taken at the Summer palace.  I will not identify each one.  It was a very long day, especially after an 11 1/2 hours flight with little sleep.  We then had another 10 hours to Munich where we had a stopover and another two hours on to Athens.  We will get another chance to see more of Beijing on our way back to Oz when we will have an overnight stop in a decent hotel.