The Imperial Garden—The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace, located in the west of Beijing, is the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China. It was used as a summer residence by China’s imperial rulers and as a pleasure ground in the countryside near to the city. The Summer Palace is a museum of traditional Chinese gardening that combines rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds, cobble paths and other garden styles to create a poetic effect between different scenes, which is really a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

The gardens that became the Summer Palace date from the Jin Dynasty(1115—1234). In Yuan Dynasty(1279—1368), canals were constructed to transport water from the Western Hills to the Summer Palace and the Kunming Lake was enlarged to reserve the water. The substantial gardens of Summer Palace were added in 1750, by the Emperor Qian Long（1736—1796）of the Qing Dyansty (1644-1911). Designers were appointed to reproduce the styles of various palaces and gardens from around China.

In 1860, the Anglo-French Allied Forces invaded Beijing and set the fire to many of the buildings within the Summer Palace. The Dowager Empress Cixi embezzled funds from the Imperial Navy and restored the gardens in 1888. Ten years later, the reconstruction and enlargement was finished and the gardens were renamed “Yi He Yuan”(Garden of Peace and Harmony). The Summer Palace was open to the public as a park in 1924 and was designated a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990.

No visitor to the Summer Palace should miss the well-known scenic spots like the Suzhou Street, the long Corridor, the Kunming Lake, the Marble Boat, the Jade Belt Bridge, and the 17-Arch Bridge, etc. The following passage will introduce these one by one.

Entering the north gate, you may see the Suzhou Street, a 300-meter-long street over water with shops along the banks. The street and the shops are modeled on the town of Suzhou in Zhejiang Province and the commercialism in southern China in the 18^th century is illustrated well here. You could find teahouses, restaurants, grocery stores even a bank here.

The Long Corridor running by the north side of Kunming Lake starts from Inviting the Moon Gate in the east and ends at Shizhang Pavilion in the West, covering a distance of 728 meters with its 273 sections, which is the longest corridor in Chinese classical gardens. There are over 14,000 traditional Chinese Painting episode from Chinese classic literature, flowers, architecture and landscapes on the beams and crossbeams. The four octagonal pavilions with double eaves, “Mesmerizing Scenery”, “Harmonizing with the Lake”, “Autumn Water” and “Clear and Carefree” intersperse along the corridor intermittently, presenting the four seasons in a year.

The Summer palace coves an expanse of 290 hectares and three quarters is open water. The Kunming Lake is primarily man-made. The earth and rocks removed to form the lakes was used to make the Longevity Hill less steep. In accordance with the “three islands in one pool” principle for the design of water features in imperial garden, three islands were built on the lake, which actually present the three islands to the east of Bohai Bay where the gods lived in Chinese tales. One of them is the South Lake Island, linking to the east bank by the famous 150-meter-long 17-Arch Bridge, the long carved on the posts of the bridge’s railings. A “Golden Ox” statue was positioned on the east of the bridge to keep the floods down.

After the Great Wall and Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is the next “must see” palace to visit for any tourist. A whole day is recommended for your visit, to relax and enjoy a different view of these wonderful gardens.