Stream with a Chinese Bridge in the Yuanmingyuan Park 圆明园
The Yuanmingyuan Park was unexpectedly massive. I was under the impression that this was just an ordinary public park, something like the one I visited in Chengdu in Sichuan Province. However, this one was one a totally different scale. I have been to the Summer Palace (next subway station), and I already thought that was large. It featured a lake which took me more than an hour to circumnavigate. It was surprising to know that the Yuanmingyuan Park was much larger than that. The total land area of the park is around 3.5 square kilometers. That is big for a park. Maybe it is also big for an imperial palace as well since the Forbidden City is not as big as that.
Blue Sky Reflects on the Waters of a Lake in Yuanmingyuan Park 圆明园
After the looting, the Yuanmingyuan Park is now basically just a park. But what a park it is. I have visited a lot of Chinese Parks and this was one of the prettier ones. It has all the features of a Chinese park, pavillions, lakes, streams and bridges and of course willow trees. It was like every inch of the park was very photogenic. It slowed me down even more as I was stopping every now and then to take photos of the lovely scenery. Crowds here were nowhere to be seen but just some people coming here to have a good time.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/YuanmingyuanPark.kmz} zoom=19]