MY TRAVEL INFO: SUMMER PALACE, BEIJING, CHINA

The Summer Palace in Beijing, known in Chinese as Yiheyuan (颐和园), is an absolute masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It served as a summer retreat for the Qing Dynasty Royal Family, centered around the man-made Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill. 

Here are the key facts and features:

The Imperial Garden Masterpiece

Largest and Best-Preserved Royal Garden: It is renowned as the largest and most intact imperial garden in China.

• Location: Located in the northwestern outskirts of Beijing, at No. 19, Xinjiangongmen Road, Haidian District, Beijing. 
• Design Concept: The palace design beautifully combines the natural landscape of hills and open water with artificial features like pavilions, halls, temples, and bridges. Its landscape is largely centered around Longevity Hill (Wanshou Shan) and Kunming Lake, which covers about three-quarters of the total area. The lake was modeled on the famous West Lake in Hangzhou.
• UNESCO World Heritage: It was inscribed in 1998, recognized for its outstanding aesthetic value and its role as a key element in the development of Chinese garden art.

History Highlights

Original Construction: 

• It was initially constructed starting in 1750 during the Qing Dynasty by Emperor Qianlong as the Garden of Clear Ripples (Qingyiyuan), largely as a gift for his mother's 60th birthday.

Destruction and Reconstruction:

• It was largely destroyed by Anglo-French forces during the Second Opium War in 1860.
• It was later reconstructed by Empress Dowager Cixi starting in 1886, who renamed it the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). She famously diverted funds originally intended for the navy to finance its restoration.
• It suffered damage again during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 but was subsequently restored.
• Public Park: Following the 1911 Revolution, it was eventually opened to the public and became a public park in 1924.

Famous Attractions

The Summer Palace is vast and features several iconic sights:

• Kunming Lake: The large, man-made lake that forms the central water feature.
• Longevity Hill: The main hill, featuring a magnificent complex of buildings on its southern slope.
• Long Corridor (Changlang): A 728-meter-long covered walkway, the longest in the world, famous for its over 14,000 paintings depicting scenes from Chinese classics and folklore.
• Tower of Buddhist Incense (Foxiangge): A striking, multi-story pagoda built on the slope of Longevity Hill, dominating the view over the lake.
• Seventeen-Arch Bridge: A beautiful stone bridge connecting the shore to Nanhu Island in Kunming Lake.
• The Marble Boat (Qingyanfang): A unique pavilion extending into Kunming Lake, which features a stone base and a two-story superstructure.

Compiles by :

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

Lembah Keramat, K.L

16/12/2025: 1.51 a.m