| Summer Palace tips and photos posted by real travelers and Beijing locals.
Northwest of Beijing
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The main entrance to the Summer Palace is the East Palace Gate, once reserved for the imperial family who would arrive with an entourage of 1,000. The stone slab ramp carved with dragons was rescued from the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan. Behind the gate is the standard screen to protect the palace from malevolent spirits, who can only travel in straight lines. The single-storey Hall of Benevolent Longevity stands opposite, surounded by pines and cypresses. It was built on the site of an earlier audience hall, the Hall of Diligent Government. Just in front of the hall, and to the left is a bronze Chinese unicorn. Inside the hall, it looks much as it would have done in Cixi's time. In the hall, the hanging with the Chinese character for "Longevity" is encircled by a hundred bats, as the word for bat in Chinese is a homonym for happiness, so linking the two together. Cixi's seal on the hanging suggests that she painted it: rather unlikely.
Behind the hall is a classical Chinese rock arden with locks from the Taihu lake. Strange and weird rock sructures are an essential element of Chinese gardens, and although their bare rugged features seem ugly to many Westerners, Chinese people see great beauty in them, and are fond of giving names to individual rocks, seeing rabbits, lions, dragons and scenes from Chinese classic novels where the uninitiated see just a rock. Leave a Comment
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The southern aspect Leshoutang, Dowager-Empress Cixi's residence, is the landing jetty for her boat, and just to its left, around the narrow walkway is the beautiful two-storeyXjiailou, or Pavilion of Blessed Sunset, from where Cixi watched the sun descending over the Western Hills.
But one of the most fascinating parts of the whole Summer Palace is also one of the simplest structures: the Long Corridor that runs 728 metres along the northern bank of the lakeside, joining a series of pavilions and minor residences. This Corridor is the most obvious, yet least authentic, copy of the siuthern Chinese style of garden. In classic imperial style, the emperor wanted to recreate the narrow corridors favoured in the southern gardens, yet in creating a Long Corridor that was straight, he missed the point of these corridors, which was to break up long vistas into smaller panoramas or create the impression of larger scenes in a small space. The Long Corridor does neither: it is just, well, a long corridor. However, the inability to faithfully recreate a classical Chinese feature resulted in th construction of something unique. The Long Corridor was first built in 1750, and the interior is covered in Suzhou-style paintings - these are more true to character. However, in such a huge construction, it is not surprising that the painters ran out of standard garden and religious scees, and used artistic licence to create all sorts of bizarre scenes. It really is worth taking the Long Corridor very slowly and looking closely at some of the 14,000 paintings.
The four pavilions along the corridor each represent the four seasons: Liujiating, the Pavilion of Lingering Scenery represents spring; Jilanting, the Paviliion Giving Expression to the Orchid summer; Qiushuiting, the Pavilion of Autumn Dew autumn; Qingyaoting, the Pavilion of the Clear View, winter. The latter two are beyond the central complex of buildings.
Immediately behind the Long Corridor are a series of smaller residences for members of the imperial family. Leave a Comment
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 Dragons are everywhere... take
car... by ahoerner
To begin your tour, take the right to the Garden of Virtous Harmony. And after that come back and take your left to go to the gardens... Leave a Comment
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 Summer Palace by magor65Leave a Comment
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 Palace of Budhist Fragrance by ahoerner
The view from over there is also breathtaking... but it takes you to a huge climbing.
It was really a pity the cloudy day during our visit... hope you are luckier than me then! Leave a Comment
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 by SLLiew
Known as Qingyanfang" (Boat of Clearness and Comfort), the Marble boat was first built 1755 and rebuilt 1893 by Empress Dowager Cixi by using navy funds.
It is a nice stroll as the tour bus will drop you at one end and pick you at the other.
Like the restaurant there which serves imperial banquet meals and allows tourists to rent Imperial clothes to be photographed as Emperor, Empress or concubine.
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 Garden of Virtuous
Harmony by ahoerner
There, if you are in a lucky day, you can watch a presentation of typical chinese music and dancers.
Just like two centuries ago... Leave a Comment
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 Long Corridor by nepalgoodsLeave a Comment
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 Marble Boat at the Summer
Palace by easyoar
Within this complex is a huge marble 'boat' that sits just inside the lake. Empress Dowager Cixi built this boat in 1888. She had been allocated money to help build China a modern navy. Instead of doing this, she decided to blow the lot building a completely immobile boat on the waters edge, where she used to dine out in the evenings.
The boat is however very well made and well worth a look. Leave a Comment
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The Summer Palace is a collection of buildings, some joined by the beautifully decorated Long Corridor arranged along the shore of a large man-made lake.
Many Chinese wander around the Summer Palace (or as Alvin used to do as a child, go to find a quiet spot to read and enjoy the ambience of the beautiful parkland).
Of special interest to us were the Long Corridor (with its ceiling beautifully decorated with illustrations from Chinese folk tales), the Marble Boat securely planted in the lake, and the spectacular hilltop palace of Empress Ci Xi.
We were fortunate with our timing (mid afternoon to evening) and we witnessed a colourful sunset over Kunming Lake and the Marble Boat.
Visitors can buy either a through ticket which gives entry to all the main sites or just a single entry ticket which means that separate entry has to be paid for each of the main buildings. We entered at the north gate.
Hours of opening: 7.00am-17.00pm during high season
20 Yuan
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