Saturday, August 29, 2009

Big infinity pool in Aman's basement & some hotel interiors...






The modern version of Cixi's private lake: luxury infinity pool on one of several sub-levels of the Aman resort...

Back to Aman via hidden gate...





Touring the lake & Dowager Empress Cixi's marble flagship...





One of my favorite stories: After the Chinese fleet was sunk en masse by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Sino-Japanese War of 1895, Cixi's government instituted a special patriotic tax to raise money for building a modern Chinese navy -- then she used all the tax money to construct her own manmade lake complete with a marble houseboat.  It's nice to know some governments have been even less responsible than our own spending taxpayers' hard-earned money.

More of Aman, including restaurant...





More of the Hotel...





Kunming Lake...





Still more Summer Palace...