Senior Moments

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In 1987 I was one of five professors from our college that spent a summer teaching English to the some of the faculty and staff of our sister college in Tianjin, China.  One day our hosts took us and several of our students to see the Summer Palace in Beijing.

The Summer Palace was an imperial garden during the Qing dynasty, and is a vast collection off lakes, gardens, and palaces.  The architecture was in a traditional Chinese style.

The ornamentation on the roofs of the palace was exquisite.

On of the features of the Summer Palace was the Long Corridor, a covered walkway that contained approximately 14,000 paintings, most of which were derived from classical Chinese literature.

Water makes up three-quarters of the grounds of the Summer Palace.  Kunming Lake is the largest of the bodies of water and provides a beautiful and relaxing sight.

Another outstanding attraction of the palace is the Marble Boat.  In reality it is a tea room, but it was built in the style of ships in the Chinese navy. 

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One of the highlights of the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing is the ‘marble boat’.  It’s not really made of marble, although the superstructure was decorated to look like marble.  The original boat was built in 1755 by Emperor Qinglong, but was destroyed by British forces in 1860.  The current boat was built in 1893 by the Dowager Empress Cixi  Legend says she used funds allocated for the Chinese navy to build this boat at the Summer Palace, but that story has never been proven.  The ‘marble boat’ is a pavilion that was used bu the empress for enjoying the beauty of the Summer Palace while she had her breakfast or dinner. I got this photo of the ‘marble boat’ when I visited the Summer Palace in 1987.