The Long Corridor at Summer Palace

This is a picture of the Changlang (The Long Corridor) which is a covered promenade at the foot of the Hill of Longevity. It is 728m long and runs East-West along the Northern shore of Kunming Lake. Legend has it that the corridor is so long that 'at one end you could utter the first words of love, and fix the wedding date once you got to the other end'. This theory was difficult to test out--first because I'm already married but also because there were so many people visiting this day that it may have been an eternity from one end to the other. ;) The corridor was painted in dozens of brilliant colors and the crossbeams as well as all of the beams along the sides and ceilings of the corridor are painted in beautiful landscape scenes or pictures of birds, trees or wildlife--each one quite unique.