The Last Wall

And for the grand finale, we had the driver drop us off at Jin Shan Ling, and we stomped all the way to Si Ma Tai. Thats the only decent way to bid farewell to the iconic landmark of Beijing.


Jt and her nerves spilling all over even before the climb.


Sigh, no more of this for the next, erm, 20 years? Bye bye.

In Ruins

The old summer palace is reduced to what we now see at Yuanming Yuan - a sprawling site of rocks and marble strewn over the grounds, the result of years at war with the Brits and the French. At its peak, Yuanming Yuan was likened to the Versailles in France, notably because of the strong european influence on the architectural design of the palace.

I remember the ditsy woman who took several shots of me and rf, laughing, opened mouths, eyes not looking. She just went click click click. And the shot below is the best of the lot.


Yuanming Yuan is best visited in summer, when the leaves are green and the sky is blue, and flowers grow abound. It softens the rough edges of the random rubble you see.


The summer heat was getting to us, and both rf and I just really wanted to get out there and experiment with our cameras and creativity. With both our enthusiasm that took us sometimes up the rocks and through the ruins, we came back with quite decent shots i must say.


Today, Yuanming Yuan is more like a park, with the occasional stone slabs thrown across your path. It does make you wonder where that stone once belonged to, which part of the pillar did it once form, the former glory of Yuanming Yuan.


Playing with the colour accent function in my camera. Blue, for the blue blue sky we had that day.

What is left of the main building

Enjoying a good tan
"The Versailles"