When I was a child we used to go on summer holidays to a camp site in Skerries, a seaside resort in north County Dublin. Now I'm from the Northside of Dublin City, which for those of you who don't know, is within County Dublin. It never struck me that we were travelling all of 30 kilometres from home, but it didn't matter; it was different, that's all that counted.
The Chinese emperors probably had a better notion of geography than I did when I was eight years old, so they knew they were spending their summer holidays quite close to home – even closer than the Maguire family did. When they got tired of the heat and humidity in the Forbidden City in the centre of Beijing, they decamped to the Summer Palace, about 17km door-to-door. You can certainly see what attracted them: the temperature might not be much different, but the atmosphere is. It's made for pleasure rather than business, though they remained in splendid isolation from the masses.
The Summer Palace (颐和园 – Yí Hé Yuán, "Gardens of Nurtured Harmony" is a splendid series of gardens, temples and apartments surrounding the artificial Kunming Lake. It was destroyed and ransacked several times by invading armies, the French and British featuring prominently among them. It has been restored to its former glory and is certainly worth at least a half a day's visit.
The Chinese emperors probably had a better notion of geography than I did when I was eight years old, so they knew they were spending their summer holidays quite close to home – even closer than the Maguire family did. When they got tired of the heat and humidity in the Forbidden City in the centre of Beijing, they decamped to the Summer Palace, about 17km door-to-door. You can certainly see what attracted them: the temperature might not be much different, but the atmosphere is. It's made for pleasure rather than business, though they remained in splendid isolation from the masses.
The Summer Palace (颐和园 – Yí Hé Yuán, "Gardens of Nurtured Harmony" is a splendid series of gardens, temples and apartments surrounding the artificial Kunming Lake. It was destroyed and ransacked several times by invading armies, the French and British featuring prominently among them. It has been restored to its former glory and is certainly worth at least a half a day's visit.
