"Chengde" Chengde by y_lyn

On the 5th day, after sending some of the tour members to the airport (they took up 5 days Beijing trip only), we proceeded with our itinerary to Chengde. It was a long journey, about 5 hours. We left for Chengde around 2pm and reached our destination at around 7pm, just right for dinner. After dinner, we checked-in to our hotel. Basically, there is not much night life in Chengde so we just stayed in the hotel after that.

The next morning, we had a local guide, Xiao Su to bring us to the imperial resort at Chende and also, Little Potala Palace which is modelled on the actual Potala Palace in Lhasa. We only spent half a day at Chengde which I think is a bit too short, then we took another 5 hours back to Beijing.

A bit of history about Chengde: Around the end of 17th century, the Qing emperors began to look for a place where they can go for retreat during the hot summer. They found this place. Emperor Kangxi ordered the building of the summer palace here in 1703.