Summer Palace

The Summer Palace mainly consists of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, occupies an area of 3.02 square kilometers, three quarters of which are water. In the Summer Palace, palatial chambers and ancient garden structures of various forms cover a floor space of 70,000 square metres. There are about 1,600 famous trees planted in ancient times in the imperial garden. It also boasts a collection of cultural relics. It belongs to the first group of major historic sites under state protection.
The Summer Palace was originally named the Garden of Clear Ripples. It was first constructed in 1750 (the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong in Qing Dynasty). In 1860 (the 10th year of the reign of Emperor Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty) the garden was burned down by Anglo-French allied forces. In 1886 (the 12th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty), the Qing government had it reconstructed by embezzling funds from the navy. Two years later, its name was changed to the current one, and it became the living place of The Empress Dowager Cixi in her later years. In 1900, it suffered again, being ransacked by the allied forces of the Eight-Power allied Forces. In 1902, it was restored. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Summer Palace has undergone several major renovations. Several important scenic spots such as the Four Great Lands, Suzhou Market Street, the Pavilion of Bright Scenery, the Hall of Tranquility, and the Garden of Farming and Weaving have been successively restored while the Garden of Virtuous Harmony, a new scenic spot, has been built. Therefore the top-quality cultural relics of the Summer Palace can be exhibited in a concentrated way.

The Summer Palace combines all of the traditional styles in garden design and construction. Based on the surrounding landscape, it shows not only the grandeur of an imperial garden, but also the beauty of nature, thus it gives full expression to one guiding principle in the construction of Chinese gardens, creating “an artificial work bearing the resemblance to a natural one.” The landscape of lakes and hills is dotted with palaces, temples and garden structures, which are laid out in three parts. Centered on the Hall of Benevolence of Longevity was the court area where the Empress Dowager Cixi used to attend to court affairs behind a screen during most of her later years. The residential area, composed mainly of the Hall of Jade Ripples, the Hall of Happiness in Longevity and the Hall of Pleasure Rue, was where the empress lived her daily life. The tourist area integrates the landscape, architecture and plants into a whole and was the place where the rules sought refuge with rest and entertainment. Standing tall and overlooking the lake, the magnificent Tower of Buddhist Incense stands at the center of all of the buildings in the entire garden. Kunming Lake boasts a vast water area under a boundless sky, giving an impression of enchantment. In the vast expanse of misty water, hills and charming islands stand like the three legs of a tripod. Looking like a rainbow, the Seventeen-Arch Bridge spans the blue water. With the supple and graceful Six Bridges and the West Dyke running north and south, the landscape looks as if it was made by Heaven. Walking on the Rear-Hill and along the Back-Lake, you can hear the sighing of the wind in the pines while in the court market you can see flags fluttering in the wind. The imperial palaces are majestically built and the lake and the hill add beauty to each other. Notably, the garden takes as its background the peaks of the Lake Spring Hill and the Western Hills. Ingeniously conceived and exquisitely constructed, it is a collection of all the masterpieces in the art of Chinese garden-building and is known as the “Museum of Imperial Gardens”. The Summer Palace is the best preserved imperial garden in the world with such rich landscapes and a concentrated collection of buildings. In December 1998, it was included in the World Heritage list by UNESCO.
The characteristics of the Summer Palace:
1) The Summer Palace in Beijing is an outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape-garden design, building the works of man and nature into a harmonious whole;
2) The Summer Palace epitomizes the philosophy and the practices of Chinese garden design, which played a key role in the development of this cultural form of oriental gardening;
3) The imperial gardens in China as represented by the Summer Palace are a potent symbol of one of the major civilizations in the world.