Summer Palace

As one of China’s four famous gardens (the other three are Chengde Imperial Summer Resort, Humble Administration Garden in Suzhou, and Lingering Garden in Suzhou), Summer Palace is the largest and best preserved royal garden in China. Covering an area of about 290 hectares, Summer Palace is located in Haidian District in Beijing, 15km from the downtown. Dominated mainly by Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, Summer Palace is designed and built into a natural large-scale mountain and water garden, using some construction techniques of the gardens on the Yangtze Delta and mirrored the prospect of West Lake in Hangzhou as a blueprint. As the best preserved royal imperial palace for short stays away from the capital, Summer Palace is honored as the museum of the imperial gardens.

Construction and History

In Qing dynasty, Summer Palace was the emperors’ temporary imperial palace and garden. Originally known as Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure, built in 1750 and completed in 1764, Summer Palace was the last one to be built among the Three Mountains and Five Gardens (Three Mountains are Longevity Hill, Fragrant Hill and Jade Spring Hill). The three mountains built were the Garden of clear Ripples, Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure and Garden of light and tranquility. Together with another two gardens nearby, Garden of Everlasting Spring and Summer Palace, they are generally called the Five Gardens. It covers an area of 290 hectares, 75% of which is water.

Before Qianlong emperor ascended the throne, four large-scale royal gardens had been built in the western suburbs of Beijing. From Haidian District to the Fragrant Hill, they were independent respectively without an organic connection between each other, thus left an empty area of Jar Hi Pond in the middle. In the 15th year of Qianlong period (1750), this area was rebuilt into Garden of Clear Ripples under the imperial decree of Qianlong emperor for his mother Xiaosheng Empress, costing 4,480,000 liang (224,000kg) of silver. From then on, the four gardens were linked together centered on Garden of Clear Ripples and formed today’s 20km long Royal Garden Area from Tsinghua Park to the Fragrant Hill.

In the 10th year of Xianfeng Period, Garden of Clear Ripples was burnt down by the Anglo-French Allied Force. In the 14th year of Guangxu Period (1888), Empress Dowager Cixi raised a sum of money (5,000,000 liang to 6,000,000 liang silver, that is 250,000kg to 300,000kg silver according to the experts) in the name of navy outlay to rebuild the Garden of Clear Ripples and changed the name to Summer Palace, a place where she spent the summer at leisure and enjoyed entertainments. The reconstruction was conducted by Lei Tingchang, the seventh successor of Yang- Shi- Lei.

Another disaster happened at the Summer Palace in the 26th year of Guangxu Period (1900). For the second time, Anglo-French Allied Force robbed Summer Palace of many treasures and almost razed it to the ground. And another reconstruction was conducted in the 29th year of Guangxu Period (1903), but damage occurred again when Kuomintang ruled the country and warlord clashes happened all the time. After 1949, the government had been funding the repair of Summer Palace, and in March 4th, 1961, the Summer Palace was announced as the first batch of national key cultural relic protection unit. In November, 1998, Summer Palace was included into the world heritage list. On May 8th, 2007, the Summer Palace was approved by the National Tourism Administration as a state 5A-class scenic spot. In 2009, Summer Palace was selected by China World Record Association as the largest existing royal garden in China. Summer Palace has been at the top of many fields in China, and around the world.

Useful Information

Best Touring time: April – October

Visiting Time: about 3 hours

Transportation: Subway line 4 is at the North Palace Gate. Xiyuan station in subway line 4 is about 500 meters east of the East Palace Gate.