Summer Palace

Summer Palace lies 20 kilometers northwest of the center of Beijing. It is the largest imperial garden in existence in China. The whole Summer Palace covers an area of over 290 hectares including more than 3,000 buildings, such as halls, pavilions, towers and so on. Summer Palace used to be called the Garden of Clear Ripples.

Main parts of Summer Palace
Summer Palace mainly consists of Kunming lake , Longevity Hill and the Long Corridor.

• Longgevity Hill, which can be divided into Front Hill and Rear Hill, is about 60 meters high.
• Kumming Lake, which is man-made, is available for boat rides during much of the year, and ice skates can be performed during the frozen winter months.
• The Long Corridor is 795 yards long and parallels the lake. It is the longest walkway in the Chinese gardens with altogether over 14,000 traditional Chinese paintings on the beams and crossbeams.

The garden also can be divided into three parts, administration, residence and scenery browsing area.

• The administration area, taking Halls of Benevolence and Longevity as its principal part, is the place where Cixi dealt with state affairs and received officials.
• Residence area mainly consists of Hall of Jade Billows, Garden of Virtue and Harmony, and Hall of Joyful Longevity.
• The Kunming Lake and Long cordial made up of the scenery browsing area.

Value
The Summer Palace, on one hand, is a testimony to the luxurious style of the feudal emperor, and on the other hand, represents an apex in the development of Chinese landscape gardening in terms of scale, layout, craftsmanship and artistic elegance.

Two entrances of Summer Palace
Summer Palace has two entrances, one is the East Palace Gate and the other is North Palace Gate. Most visitors enter the garden from the East Palace Gate.
Kunming Lake covers an area of 220 hectares, or three fourths of the combined space of this summer resort. This natural lake is more than 3,500 years old.

Photo of Summer Palace