CHINA'S SUMMER PALACE

                                      A Real Showplace

            Covering 270 square hectares, the Summer Palace is larger than the Forbidden City. Located northwest of Beijing, the Summer Palace is just shy of 10-miles from central Beijing. It is the largest and best preserved royal park in China. The construction started in 1750 as a luxurious royal garden for royal families to rest and entertain. It later became the main residence of royal members at the end of the Qing Dynasty. With a couple of previous names it was renamed the Summer Palace after reconstruction in 1888. In 1900 foreign troops torched the Summer Palace, but it was rebuilt a few years later, and in 1924 was opened to the public.

            In 1949 it underwent major restoration. There are many rocks on the grounds that serve both as scenery and as protectors of good luck. Entering the first court yard we stopped in front of a large bronze imaginary animal—the Royal Statue. The creature had the horns of a deer, the skin of a fish, the hooves of oxen, the tail of a lion, and the head of a dragon. It was pretty weird.  That courtyard led to the Hall of Longevity built in 1750 to celebrate the 60^th birthday of the emperor’s mother. Not surprising the thresholds were high throughout the Summer Palace. In contrast to the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace had numerous lovely spacious gardens and courtyards. The roof tiles were different from others we’d seen. These tiles were long red tube-shaped that flipped at the end. Many buildings contained ornate furnishings and fine art work.

            Stopping in front of a huge but interesting rock our guide explained that it is called the unlucky rock. A long time ago the richest man in the country wanted to move this rock to his home, but half way he ran out of money and abandoned the rock alongside the road. Later the emperor saw the rock and had it moved to the palace. But the palace was already built and the rock wouldn’t fit though the gate. So part of the palace had to be disassembled to get the rock into the courtyard. I’m not sure when all that happened.

         

Covered walkway

   We strolled down the half-mile covered walkway, which provided a walking area for the empress during inclement weather. Beautiful murals were painted all along the ceiling of the walkway roof. During the Cultural Revolution the ceiling was whitewashed to protect all these lovely murals. After the revolution the whitewash was removed. The walkway ended at the marble boat, an elaborate two-deck pavilion of marble and stained glass---an interesting and unusual site.

   A lot of bamboo grew on the grounds. Bamboo, a symbol of strength, bends but never breaks, which is quite typical of the Chinese themselves over the centuries.

            The whole area radiates natural beauty and the royal gardens are not only grand but also beautiful. Over 3,000 manmade ancient structures including pavilions, towers, bridges,

Marble Boat

corridors, etc account for building space of more than 70,000 square meters.

            Kunming Lake covers two-thirds of the grounds. The lake has two stone bridges to a manmade island in the center. The lake is formed and fed by natural springs. We ended our tour of the Summer Palace by taking a boat ride across the lake.

            In 1998 UNESCO declared the Summer Palace a World Heritage Site declaring it  "A masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value."

      It is a fantastic place and was a wonderful visit on a lovely sunny day.

WINDMILLS OF HOLLAND

                                Kinderdijk

            Kinderdijk is a small village 16 kilometers from Rotterdam and a little less than 10 kilometers from the city border of Dordrecht, the oldest city in Holland. The village is unique for its 19 windmills dating from the 1500s.

The name is derived from a 16^th century legend about a baby, a cradle and a cat that all survived after being tossed into raging waters. For centuries the Dutch were at the mercy of floods. The innovative structures drain water from  polders (reclaimed land below sea level) pumping it into rivers and canals. This distributes the water levels and prevents devastating flooding. Today engines turn paddle wheels that scoop up water to redeposit it. Understandably the country has a unique bond with windmills.

            Kinderdijk is the only place in the world where one can find so many windmills concentrated in such a small area, and is the reason Kinderdijk is a UNESCO site.

            The Kinderdijk milling complex consists of 8 stone brick windmills,1738, of the waterboard Nederwaard; 8 thatched windmills, 1740, of the waterboard Overwaard; 2 stone windmills, 1760,  of the polder Nieuw-Lekkerland; and 1 windmill, 1521,  of the polder Blokweer. The last windmill  burned down in 1997, but has been rebuilt and operational since the spring of 2000.  

Kinderdijk is the final station of water of the Alblasserwaard, an area approximately 10 by 20 miles, before the river Lek empties into the sea. Even today rain water needs to be disposed of. Since the 1950's water has been pumped by one of the largest pumping stations in the world.  However, in case of emergency, the windmills that were operational until WW II still can be used.

Windmills have two doors on opposite sides because the blades are always facing the wind, and the direction of the wind vary. The blades turning in front of the door make for a dangerous situation!

The top floor of the windmill rotates with the blades and the tail of the mill, and therefore a chimney cannot be attached to the roof. Sparks of the open fire used to heat the windmill might set the thatch roof on fire. The chimney of a windmill is horizontal instead of vertical. The smoke would be blown down if there was only one ending. The second ending creates a natural draft through the chimney pulling the smoke out.

A windmill is a windmill. Not necessarily so! Watermills, can drain the land like in Kinderdijk. Grindingmills, grind flour, as well as colors to dye fabrics. Sawing mills cut wood. There are also modern two or three-blade electricity windmills. Windmills have different shapes and constructions. Windmills in old cities were built on a house, so they would reach over the buildings of the city. Windmill blades are 42-feet long and mills are placed at least 1300-feet apart. There are 1000 windmills left in Holland, a tiny fraction of the many mills that once dotted the landscape.

When there is a hole in the sail, it is patched, if there is another hole another patch is made, and when there are more patches than sail the sail is replaced. The old sail would be used for making children’s clothes. Capacity of an older windmill is 40.000 liters/min while capacity of the Nederwaard pumps is 1.350.000 liters/min.