Saibeicun Hotel Chengde

... the last time I had done it was last summer in China - before that was many, many years. But, lucky me, I didn't get killed by a truck, just rode, eyes plastered on the road ten feet in front of me, and my skin pale and clenching tightly to the lifeline of the handlebars.<br><br>We biked for about an hour, far off the main highway through small farming and factory villages, past a field full of goats and along a meandering river. The destination, I ...

... park with a big wall around it and a bunch of pagodas in the hills and lakes with islands and bridges passing out to them. Let's just say it's worth the 90rmb per person entrance fee we payed, and we spent most the day walking around only to see a small portion of the resort.<br><br> Leaving on quest for sustenance, we, post-success, traveled to one of Chengde's 7 outlying temples. These temples ...

... more like trail-mates as we wended our way together along the ancient bastion.<br><br><br> Although it's only a distance of about thirteen km from Jinshanling to Simatai, the walk takes nearly four sweaty hours as the trail is extremely steep in places and, at times, the crumbling stonework requires careful footwork. It was nearly 10.30 when I set off and the mist, which I had hoped would burn off, showed no signs of rising ...

... of the 'rural China' towns as we passed through. Unfortunately, they were with my cell phone camera since my camera didn't have new batteries yet and so they turned out quite poorly.<br>The county level town of Xiabancheng (aka Chengde County), is built much like Jinghai. By that I mean, it's a small town with relatively few people yet it is very compacted and so the town center is built up ...

... sont beaucoup plus longs; les trains express c'etait juste en Shanghai et Beijing, maintenant ils sont beaucoup trop lents et leur confort est comparable a ce qu'on a vecu en couchette.<br><br>Les autobus, eux, sont quand meme deluxe. Les sieges se baissent et ils ont tous l'air climatisee. Mais pour la question securite, c'est autre chose. Par rapport a ce que j'ai vu avant, les chinois poussent vraiment plus loin la limite de la ...

... Chinese, Manchu, Mongol, and Tibetan). At Puning, we went through the main entry gate and immediately could smell the incense, people were praying everywhere and giving thanks with gifts. This temple is the only active temple of all eight and still has a large contingent of monks that live there. The front of the temple grounds are in the Chinese architectural style , while the second half (the white tall tower) are in the ...

... I am ready to go to the temples around town and get temple overload.<br><br>My first temple was Putuozongcheng Temple, which built based on the model of Potala Palace in Tibet. This is the closer I could get to Tibet as I can (on this trip anyway). It was interesting to gain a view on the Tibetan culture. As it was the beginning of spring, I was one of the few tourists there. The climb to the top of the temple is not for the faint hearted, but the ...

... and also to be able to take a shower standing up. but everytime i take a shower it floods the entire bathroom, its kinda weird but thats the way its suppose to work. class is gettign a little harder but not so bad. chengde itself is getting a bit old, i was getting a little cranky the past two days but it has seemed to pass. i finally get to watch some world cup tonite which i am very excited about. we ...

... tour groups with their loud hailers. We did our best to find tranquility but failed miserably. The next day we did a bit better exploring the many buddhist temples that Chengde is also famous for. We did 3 very different ones; the first with practicing monks, the 2nd very quiet and peaceful and the 3rd a mini version of the Potala palace in Lhasa. There were many steps but not the altitude of the real thing!! A more relaxed day than yesterday.

Fantastic, especially in summer, when Beijing is cooking. Beautiful gardens and temples. I'd recommend the hotel inside the grounds of the summer palace. I don't remember the name, but it's got peacocks running around and is inside the summer palace wall.