The
Summer Palace lies more than 10 Km on the northwestern outskirts of Beijing, it is up to
now the best preserved and the largest imperial gardens in China.
In 1153, the
Emperor of the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234 A.D) Wan Yanliang built a temporary palace here
called the "Garden of Golden Waters" as his summer resort.
In the Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D), the palace was changed into and imperial garden.
In 1702, the Qing
Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722 A.D) enlarged the garden into a temparary Palace.
In 1750, the Qing
Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795 A.D) reconstructed it and called it the Garden of Clear
Ripples.
In 1860, the
Allied Anglo-French Force captured Beijing and burned the Palace.
In 1888, the
Empress Dowager Ci'xi decided to spend the money originally earmarked for the Chinese Navy
and rebuilt the garden, she herself gave it its present name of Yi He Yuan (Garden of
Cultivated Harmony), and the Chinese inscription of the name was written in Emperor
Guangxu's (1875-1908) handwriting.
Ever since then,
the Empress Dowager Ci'xi started to spend every summer here and had it restored after it
was damaged again in 1900.
The main features
of the Summer Palace are Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, it has an area of 290 hectares,
approximately the size of seven Tian anmen Square, it also boasts more than 3,000 bays of
various buildings in different palace and garden architectual styles. Kunming Lake
consists of three forths of the whole garden.
Like most imperial
palaces in China, the Summer Palace is divided into three parts: halls for political
affairs, living quarters and religious buildings. |