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Trip to China - 11
 In the afternoon I went to visit the Summer Palace. This was first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the war of 1860 and restored on its original foundations in 1886 - is 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's, I had to learn the Beijing underground quickly, and negotiate taxis and tubes to get there but alas I arrived too late to enter the buildings and wondered in vain looking for the Imperial peonies but did not find them, you cant win them all, It was a very impressive place surrounding a large lake and I did get to see the infamous marble boat completed by the Empress Dowager Cixi.,who ruled over the fast disintegrating Chinese empire from1861 until her death in 1908,her ultimate flight in fancy being the construction of this magnificent marble boat from funds intended for the Chinese navy.
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