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The Summer Palace, literally translated as “Garden of Nurtured Harmony” in Chinese, is one of China’s most preserved Cultural Relics Protection Site. It has the perfect architectural design of most Chinese gardens and is being noted as one of the best traditional and well preserved gardens in the world. It was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1998.
The Summer Palace was once a center for summer tourists, palace temples, lakes, gardens and corridors which were used by the imperial court thousands of years ago. The construction of the Summer Palace started out with the Jin Dynasty in the early 1100’s during the succeeding reigns of the feudal emperors. It started to bloom as an imperial garden during the Qing Dynasty by the mid 1600’s up to the 1900’s. It later became the resting ground for the royal families and a place for entertainment. Formerly known as “Qingyi Garden”, the Summer Palace was well known for its famous three hills namely Longevity Hill, Jade Spring Mountain and the fragrant hill; it also had five beautiful gardens which are the Clear Ripples Garden, Tranquility Garden, Garden of Everlasting Spring, Perfection and Brightness Garden, and the Garden of Pleasure. The Summer Palace is mainly made up of the Longevity Hill (Wanshao Shan) and the Lake of Kunming (Kunming Hu) in the south. The Longevity Hall is about 60 meters high and is one of the most important halls in the palace. The palace covers up to 3 kilometers of land, most of which is surrounded by water. The beauty about the Summer Palace is the way the palace is adorned with different variety of gardens and other ancient styled architectural structures making the palace an amazing and wonderful sight to see. Located 15 kilometers away from the city of Beijing in Haidan District, the Summer Palace is symbolized with the “Foxiangge” – the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Foxiangge is a tall structure at Longevity Hall which consists of over three thousand structures divided into four divisions. To make your tour around the Summer Palace worthwhile, it is divided into four divisions which allow for great visiting pleasures; these are the Court Area, the Front Hill Area, the Front Lake Area and the Rear Hill Area. The Court Area where the Longevity Hall stands is just away from the lake in the direction of the east gate. This is where the former emperor handled the administrative affairs and attended to diplomats and envoys. The Hall houses a hardwood throne and a courtyard filled with bronze animals with a special “qilin”, an animal believed to be a mythical hybrid. There are so many halls in this area and makes for an interesting section of the palace to visit. The Front Hill is the most beautiful part of the Summer Palace with so many buildings hence it is the part that attracts visitors the most. The layouts of the important buildings in this area were designed in such a way that all of them stemmed out from the center of the Kunming Lake like a slope into majestic golden rooftops of beautifully architectured buildings. A wonderful place to take pictures of Chinese styled architecture. The Rear Hill is a little different from the front hill in that it is densely populated with lush green trees. On this part, you will see a Ming styled street leading to Suzhou Market Street decorated with long rows of street shops with beautiful gateways and passages. Most tourists take this route to go to the Imperial Palace. The last area which is the Front Lake Area exposes the greater part of the Summer Palace as you are welcomed into an open space of water. The waves and ripples formed in the lake make it a quiet and peaceful place to relax. There is a seventeen arched bridge which connects the Nanhu Island leading to the southern bank of the lake. Standing on the mainland side of this section is a beautiful bronze ox which many tourists take pictures on. On the northern bank of the lake is the Long Corridor which is decorated with over 8,000 color paintings reflecting Chinese culture and history. The Summer Palace is indeed one of the must sees on a tour in China. The words used to describe the gardens are not enough to describe the grandeur of this place. |
