Chengde aka: 承德

Chengde, which is the summer retreat for the royal family. http://www.pbase.com/towkay/image/20839808 Good for an overnight trip, with a night time re-visit to the grounds http://www.pbase.com/towkay/image/20839750 Good to spend a day in the park, and another half day at the 8 temples built around the park.

Each temple is a mini copy of a famous temple from another part of china. (including the Potala in Tibet http://www.pbase.com/towkay/image/20839718)

One of the temples contain a very BIG　Buddha. Its not the size, but the holiness of this Buddha that makes me like it a lot. Something about it, makes me like it a lot. http://www.pbase.com/towkay/image/20839709

I just returned from Chengde, its a nice city to get your feet moving in china. Small and easy to get around in so youre warmed up for the big cities then. The temples and summer resort are pretty cool, I stayed in the mongolian yurts for a week then at the medical school.

it is a great trip for anyone spending significant time in the Beijing area. Located 4-5 hours outside the city by train or bus Chengde is a small town with clean air (rare in china) and some great sites. Key things to see; Summer Resort a huge park that has a feel of that of the summer palace but the area is much larger, Putuozhongcheng a mini potala palace, and punyin temple. There are also other outlying temples, and make hiking/climbing trails making a stay of a few more days worth it if you have time. Entrance is to sites is expensive by China standards (90 yuan, 40 yuan, and 50 yuan for the sites mentioned above in order). Transportation however is cheep no place in town should be more than 10 yuan by taxi.