Summer Palace

This guide to the Summer Palace in Beijing opens at a lotus pond in the Garden of Harmonious Interest, where the Empress Dowager Cixi appeared to pull up fish with impossible luck. It follows Cixi's decades ruling China from behind the throne, and her rebuilding of the palace as a retirement stage after British and French troops burned the original grounds in 1860. Officially the funds came from the treasury; you'll hear what unofficial accounts claim instead. Walk down toward the lake as you listen, past the covered walkways and pavilions along the shore.