The Summer Palace is located in the northwest of Beijing built in 1750. Covering an area of over 290 hectares, it makes the Summer Palace the largest imperial garden in China. More than 3, 000 buildings, such as halls, pavilions, towers and corridors are scattered in the garden.
The Summer Palace was called “Garden of Clear Ripples” during the time of Emperor Qianlong, the one who created it. It was destroyed during the Second Opium War in 1860. In 1888, the Empress Dowager Cixi used the money of Chinese Navy to rebuild this amazing garden for herself. In 1900, once again, the garden was destroyed during the Boxers Revolution and was rebuilt very soon after it.
The Summer Palace consists of three main parts: the Kumming Lake, the man-made lake which was using for boat-riding in the summer and ice-skating in the winter months at that time; the Longevity Hill, located in the centre of the Summer Palace. The axis of the mountain goes through nine levels including the Gate of Dispelling the Cloud, Hall of Dispelling the Cloud, the Hall of the Buddhist Fragrance etc; and the Long Corridor, the longest corridor recorded in the Guinness Book with over 8,000 paintings on the beams and cross beams.
The Summer Palace is the masterpiece in Chinese traditional garden complex. 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.
