Make a journey to the west and see the Summer Palace through the eyes of the Monkey King with Beijing Postcards.

Born out of a stone, trained by Taoist masters, able to jump 10,000 kilometres and trained in shapeshifting magic, the Monkey King was a superhero before the term even existed. He took on the establishment, and despite his ultimate failure, the story of the monkey rebel leader who was sentenced to escort a monk to India to fetch Buddhist scriptures as a kind of repentance is one of the classics in China. 

The tale has something for everyone. It is a comedy, but also a key to understanding Chinese religion and spirituality. This is also the most kid-friendly walk that Beijing Postcards has ever created, because the stories feel like they were taken straight out of a comic book! The pace of the walk will also be less demanding than a trip to the Forbidden City. 

The Coronavirus situation has unwittingly created corners of beauty across Beijing. One of them is the Summer Palace. The noisy tour groups are gone because of the restrictions, and if you get to the Palace in the afternoon the cap on visitors makes the place much less crowded than usual. Join us as we tell stories about the Monkey King along the long corridor, and use the rest of the enormous complex to explore the ideas behind Chinese thinking.