Summer Palace, Beijing

Rising up from the lake, halfway along the lakefront is a series of buildings stepping up the hillside to the Sea of Wisdom Temple, and is really a separate palace complex, entered, from he lake, by a ceremonial archway. Contrary to some descriptions, the archway does not have a specific name. On the lakeside is inscribed the phrase "Gorgeous Clouds and Jade Eaves" and on the land side "Stars Surrounding the Jade Centre". Behind it is the main entrance hallway, the Paiyunmen, or Gate that Dispels the Clouds, opening onto a small courtyard with a pool. It is vaguely reminiscent of the entrance to the Forbidden City, with an imperial marble bridge crossing the pool. Then behind the pool are steps leading up to the Longevity Gate. At the back of the terrace is the Paiyundian, the Hall that Dispels the Clouds, where Cixi would conduct much of her work on just a single day of the year - her birthday. For the rest of the year, this 21-bay spectacular, lavishly furnished building was closed. Many of the gifts bestowed on the emperors and on Cixi, were presented here, while the ruler was seated on the Nine-Dragon Throne. At the end of her long, tiring birthday, she would hold banquets for her ever-faithful eunuch officials in the Fanghui hall and Zixiao hall either side of the main hall. Otherwise, these two building also lay dormant for 364 days each year.

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.

Behind the Hall of Benevolent Longevity is a whole complex of buildings, including the Deheyuan - Palace of Virtuous Harmony - and the Leshoutang - the Hall of Joyous Longevity. few places in China are ever called Number 3, Smith Road: everywhere has to be a Hall of Something or, more usually the Hall of Superlative Something.
The Deheyuan is mainly a huge theatre, as Cixi loved theatrical performances - wasn't her whole life one, after all? She played in many performance, although it is not known if her acting skills were any better than her calligraphy skills. Nowadays, the buildings contain many memories of the theatre, but also contains the first car introduced in China (Yuan Shikai's Mercedes....the Audi A6 of its day).
Alongside the Deheyuan is the Leshoutang, set into the rising slope of the eastern end of the Hill of Longevity. Many rooms are connected by galleries, and a special feature is China's first electric lighting. Both the Deheyuan are notable for the beautiful glass windows.
To the north and west of these two building complexes is the Pavilion of Blessed Scenery, where Cixi would come to enjoy the view over the lake. It wa here that she would entertain selected foreign dignitaries, but it is most notable for being the location of th final negotiations between the KMT and the Communists to secure the peaceful handover of Beijing in early 1949. At the time, Mao Zedong was living in a villa in the Fragrant Hills just a few kilometres west of here.

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.

Later water was diverted from the Tonghui River northeast of here to create a bigger lake (not the otherway round as suggested by Frances Wood!). The area was compared with the West Lake in Hangzhou, and was a favourite spot for artists and poets.
Now called the Kunming Lake, it covers much of the area of the Summer Palace grounds, and it was used for a while in the eighteenth century for training the Chinese navy. The name Kunming has nothing to do with the provincial capital of Yunnan, it just shares the name, meaning Vast Brightness.
Most of the important buildings are in the space in the northeast corner, behind the East Gate, and on Wanshoushan - or Longevity Hill.
The Hall of Benevolent Longevity was where the emperors met with officials and vassals, and was rebuilt in 1890 after being destroyed by the AngloFrench forces. The name was bestowed by the old lady in the hope, successful as it turned out, of a long life. However, history suggests that the longevity was hardly the result of her benevolent rule, as she plotted constantly and removed every possible threat to her control over the empire. Cixi would sit behind a gauze screen so that she could see her visitors, but they couldn't see her. In earlier years, she would sit behind Emperor Guangxu, but moved forward further until eventually she sat in the throne and the hapless 'emperor' sat at her right-hand side. In 1898, after Guangxu supported the liberal reformers, she threw him in jail, guessing that everyone knew that she was the power anyway.
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.
The whole complex was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but after that listing, the old kitchens were demolished to make way for a hotel in 1999.

Curiously, Yiheyuan, the Chinese name for the place known in English as The Summer Palace, does not actually mean "Summer Palace". It roughly translates as the garden of peace- with "peace" being used in the context of 'no rebellion'.
Originally stared in 1153, the garden was under constant development right through the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties concluding with the redevelopments of the Dowager-Empress Cixi, the last real ruler before the Republic was formed. The most substantial structural work was in the reign of Qing Emperor Qianlong, who renamed it the Qingyiyuan - Garden of Crystal Ripples. At this time the complex had more than 3000 rooms in its buildings!
The development of the Summer Palace over the centuries is complicated, but fascinating, involving plenty of superstition, intrigue, wars and the decadence of the emperors. In the context of a poor country, there is probably no other such lavish park anywhere in the world. Cixi is believed to have spent 40,000 taels of silver a day on the upkeep of the complex, at a time when most of the population of China was destitute. It is perhaps telling that on the two occasions that foreign troops attacked Beijing in the eighteenth century, they destoyed the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace both times, leaving the Forbidden City and other city structures largely untouched. The Imperial Palace may have been the emperors' office, but the Summer Palace was much more their home. All that was left standing was the Bronze Pavilion and the Sea of Wisdom Temple - everything else has been rebuilt since then.
In 1153, when the hill was known as Wengshan or Jar Hill because a stone jar was reputed to have been discovered under a cliff-face. A small lake was fed by springs on the slopes of the hill.

The Summer Palace is claimed to be the largest and best-preserved royal garden in China. It covers a vast area of 294 hectares, in which three quarters are water. Mainly consists of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake which serve as the scenery browsing area.

For the garden part, its consisted of Halls of Benevolence and Longevity , Hall of Jade Billows, Garden of Virtue and Harmony, and Hall of Joyful Longevity.

The Palace is open from 7am - 5pm but each spot within the Palace is open to visitors at different time. So best time for you to go is between 9am-4pm and you will get to see every place.

Give it a whole day to stroll around. Make it there during the weekday to avoid the tourist crowd.

To enter Summer Palace you have to pay 30 Yuan.

A boat ride on the lake of the Summer Palace is a must. As it allows one to have a very nice view of the whole Summer palace and at the same time can travel from one end of the Summer palace to the other end in the shortest time. Walking to explore the whole place takes too much time as the place is really BIG!
Must see monument - the marble boat