This was part 1 of the Siberia train trip we took from June 25-July 9, 2016. The original blog was published in TravelPod. This is an “Encore” of the blog. Hope you enjoy it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/e4U9AOUrOoaYFV5j2
Many people travel to Russia by plane, or more popularly in recent years, by cruise ship. We, however, decided to make this trip with a more adventurous route by riding the worlds longest rail line, the Trans Siberia Rail (5000 miles) from Beijing to Moscow.
Our journey started at Beijing where my good friend Shiqiu welcomed us with a meal of delicious noodles (an old Beijing Tradition). We visited with her family and old friends who used to study at Mizzou. Her granddaughter Yi-Yi still remember some English words that she learned while staying with us in Columbia two years ago. Since Ray and I visited Beijing many times before, Shiqiu suggested that we take a trip to Chengde, 300 km north east of Beijing in Hebei Province, to visit the Qing dynasty emperor’s summer mountain resort.
The Mountain Resort (避暑山庄) was built between 1703-1792 during the peak period of two famous Qing emperors- Kongxi and Qianlong. The resort is divided into three regions – the mountain, the lake and the plain. Puning (universal Peace) Temple has the worlds largest wooden Buddha with thousands of small Buddha sculptures all surrounding it. This place is being remodeled for the first time in 200 years which definitely made it difficult to take good pictures
The imperial temples were built purposely in the architectural styles of the ethnic minorities to foster relations with the different groups and helped to safeguard the Mountain Resort. The small Potala Palace is a smaller model of the original one in Lhasa, Tibet. The Tablet of all temple names were written in 4 languages (Chinese, Mongolia, Manchuria and Tibetan). The biggest temple building was named “All religions were one” highlighting the emperors’ effort to be respectful for the other groups’ religions. The 62 hectors of manmade landscape of the Mountain Resort perfectly integrates with its natural environment and harmoniously layout in the practice of the traditional Chinese geomantic fengshui.