The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. Mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, it covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three-quarters of which is water. In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace “a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value”.

Located in the northwest outskirts of Beijing, 15 km from the city, the Summer Palace is originally named “Qingyiyuan” (Gardens of Clear Ripples). Based on the scenery of West Lake as the chief source, the garden absorbs the design method as well as the artistic conception of traditional southern Chinese garden. It gets the reputation of the “museum of the royal garden”.The Summer Palace, originally named Qingyi Yuan or the Garden of Clear Ripples, is the largest existing and the best-preserved royal garden in China. In the Qing Dynasty, it was one of the “Three Hills and Five Gardens” in the western suburbs of Beijing.

As the largest royal garden of the Qing Dynasty, it features wonderful scenery in four seasons. The palace gets more mild and colorful in autumn, the hue of which turns into warm colors like yellow, orange and red. Palaces sheltered in the warm color plants are especially charming. Also, some fallen leaves are floating over the water.

The most attracting water landscape in the Summer Palace lies on the Kunming Lake, where boasts vast waters and picturesque landscape. With gentle breeze and ripples, visitors can sail on the lake in summertime. While in warm days, a standing by the lakeside provides a broad view, some tourists are on powerboats and gaily-painted pleasure-boats, and others are oaring their way on small boats. With the reflection of bridges, islands, palaces and pavilions, the lake becomes vigorous and vibrant.