It was the third straight day of lovely Beijing fall
weather. The north winds have cleared the skies of PM2.5 particulates, leaving
but a few clouds on a blue background, calling for a Summer Palace tour on a
lazy Friday afternoon. Just before 2 PM, I filled my water bottles, changed
into my running gear and headed out to the subway. The number 4 line runs right
past Peking U.’s East Gate, a mere stone’s throw from my office. The number 4
line also runs past the northern entrance of Yiheyuan (Yi-he-yuan, i.e., the Summer Palace). At 2:15 PM, I was at
the Beigongmen, or North Palace Gate,
entrance of the Summer Palace. I walked around the hill (topped by FoXiang Ge, or Buddha Fragrance Temple),
and started to run at 2:20 PM, as I reached the Marble Boat on the north edge
of Kunming Lake.
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| 17 Arches Bridge (photo taken June '12) |
I carefully negotiated the crowd along Changlang (the Long Corridor) and only
started to run my usual pace, at 2:36, after the crowd started to dissipate after
the Shiqikong Bridge (17 Arches
Bridge).
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| The bridge next to the South Gate |
I reached the southern most gate at 2:41 PM, and
headed to Xidi (West Dike). My left knee started to hurt a little from the
pounding on the stone slab paved walkway. So I started to slow down a bit and
shuffle (instead of bouncing). The view from the southern side of Kunming Lake
was breathtaking. Unfortunately, I only had my Nokia (dumb) cell phone with me
and so you will have to settle for these poorly snapped photos.
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| View from Xidi |
By 2:56 I reached the bifurcation point on Xidi, where I took this photo. Ten
minutes later I ended my run at the bathroom just west of Shiqiao (Stone Bridge). I stretched a bit at stone bridge where
boats between Kunming Lake and Suzhou Jie
(a make-believe version of a Suzhou waterfront row). When I finished stretching
my hamstrings, I looked up and saw a tourist snapping a photo in my direction
--- and so I probably ended up in a photo folder on somebody’s computer,
stretching in front of the Stone Bridge.
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| View towards Suzhou Jie from the Stone Bridge |
Miscellany. Unfortunately, for some reason, the current version of google maps doesn’t allow me to mark up my run around Kunming Lake:
https://ditu.google.com/maps?q=%E9%A2%90%E5%92%8C%E5%9B%AD&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=39.99366,116.275134&spn=0.016308,0.031414&sll=39.982382,116.291656&sspn=0.124431,0.251312&brcurrent=3,0x35f051505892a34f:0x6ea89d0cc8fe038c,0,0x35f05137c865ad63:0xd348af83c67dc389%3B5,0,0&hq=%E9%A2%90%E5%92%8C%E5%9B%AD&t=h&z=15
but measurement using baidu maps showed that the
long way around Kunming Lake, by taking the farthest branch on Xidi, is around
6.5 km.
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| At the southern end of Kunming Lake (June '12) |
Since the photos taken with my Nokia were rather
poor, I had to fill this blog partially with old photos of the Summer Palace. Perhaps
I should finally get a smartphone? (The alternative would be to remember to
carry my Canon S95 on my runs?!?!)
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| View of Buddha Fragrance Temple from the east (June '12) |
