Holiday Weekend

The Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday weekend which ushers in the summer, much as the Memorial Day weekend in the US. It commemorates the self-sacrifice of the Buddhist statesmen and poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself to protest the Zhou emperor's ill-advised foreign
policy.

































In Southern China, there are Dragon Boat races; here in the North many people make excursions into the mountains. We were taken to Chengde, a mountain community 150 miles North of Beijing for the holiday. The place was crowded with cars bearing Beijing license plates.
Constructed during the reign of Kangxi (1654-1722), the palace at Chengde provided a summer mountain retreat for the Qing Dynasty emperors, who sought to escape summer outbreaks of smallpox. Tibetan style temples were constructed to foster goodwill toward Northern allies.

The palace grounds are vast. Lotus grows in the lake, which is surrounded by willows. The deer which roam the grounds are extremely tame; in earlier days these gentle creature were raised to provide sport for the emperors. (above)

I managed to walk through the miniature waterfall (below), though it was slippery with moss.















This website has lots of information about the Dragon Boat Festival
http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/dragonboat/dragon.html