可爱的加拿大姑娘超激动中国游：第二天：历史冰冷的脚趾

An hour commute (which in Beijing commuter minutes is a really short drive) brought us to the Summer Palace. I had always thought this was outside of Beijing, as when they say in the guidebook it’s more than an hour from the city centre, you assume it’s out in the burbs. But as I was coming to learn, Beijing is so expansive that to get to the burbs you have to practically get to Korea.
一小时车程之后（在北京一小时车程真的是非常短的距离），我们到达了颐和园。我一直以为颐和园在北京城外，因为看到旅游指南书上说颐和园距离北京市中心有一小时车程，你肯定会理所当然地认为颐和园坐落在郊区。但当我真正来到这里的时候，我发现真相只有一个，那就是北京的规模大到超乎想象，如果他们对你说一起去郊区吧，你完全可以设想自己要去韩国了。

Instead of spreading up, like so many major metropolises, it spread out, and as far as the eye can see from the highest point you can get to, it’s still central Beijing. Back to that “everything’s bigger in China” thing. It’s hard to wrap my brain around just how giant this place is, and how many people are here, but I’m trying.
不像其他的主要大都市，北京城不是聚拢而是摊开，站在你能找到的至高点上放眼望去，目之所及皆是北京市中心。好吧，回到“北京的一切都比图片所见要大得多”的话题上。很难在脑子里形成清晰认知，这个地方到底有多大，到底有多少人生活在这儿，不过我在努力。

The Summer Palace, the tranquil garden escape of the “Dragon Lady”, is incredible. She may have been domineering and ruthless as she took over the Empire, but she did build a pretty sweet garden oasis. The fifteen foot stone walls really do keep the outside world out, and if you didn’t see the telecom tower in the background, you’d think you really were away from it all in another world.
颐和园，“龙女士——慈禧老太”度假用的宁静美丽的花园，十分不可思议。她掌管帝国的时候也许是专制并残酷的，但她建造了一个漂亮可爱的花园绿洲。15英尺高的石墙将喧嚣尘世隔绝在外，如果没有看到远处的电信大楼，你一定会觉得自己远离凡俗，身处另一个世界。