Aerial view of the Summer Palace
Aerial view of the Summer Palace
Another most interesting spot to visit in Beijing is the Yihe Garden, commonly known as the Summer Palace. Even in the 12th Century, this location was well known and its wonderful landscape attracted many Chinese emperors to make their summer residence here. In the Qing Dynasty, it was decided to start working on it and make it one of the biggest gardens in China. But in 1860 the French and British troups destroyed it. What you can see nowadays on the aerial picture above is the Palace and its gardens built by the Empress Cixi in 1888 using the funds which were saved to modernize the Chinese Navy. She called it "the garden where harmony is kept up" or Yi He Yuan. What is remarkable in relation with this little story is that these funds actually served, among other things, for the construction of a marble boat inside Yi He Yuan which never sailed since the Empress used it as a Pavillon on the lakeside of Lake Kunming. Just take a look below...
The Marble Boat
Yi He Yuan is made of many different palaces, beautiful gardens and a huge lake called Kunming Lake. Actually to be precise, it covers 300 hectares of which 4/5 are covered by water. The lake is a very popular leisure place for the Chinese people not only in summer when they can swim, sail or rent pedal boats, but also in winter - when I had the chance to take this picture just below - when the lake becomes a paradise for skaters. You do not need to visit each of the hundred sites but with the help of a good map you should spend time wandering around Longevity Hill ("Wanshou Shan" in Chinese).
Icy Kunming Lake
To summarize, I am listing below some of the areas I found most interesting- some of which have names which will remind you of the Forbidden City :
Hall of Benevolence
and Longevity (or
Renshou Hall): the Empress Cixi and her son, Emperor Guangxu,
used to receive high-ranking foreign officials in this hall.
Hall of Virtuous
Harmony (or Dehe
Yuan): consists of the Teather Tower (built in 1895) and the Yile
Hall. The Theater is an impressive 21 meter-high building with 3
floors. The Empress was watching the performance from the Yile
Hall.
Hall of Jade Ripple (or Yulan Hall): facing the lake,
you will find this nice hall which was one of the residencial
areas of the Emperor and his wife.
Hall of Happiness
and Longevity (or
Leshou Hall): the Empress Dowager Cixi lived in this hall.
You will also notice
the long corridor (from one end to the other 728 m), also called
the "One thousand-steps corridor" which is following the north
bank of the lake and leads to Paiyun Dian (the Hall of Dispelling
Clouds), the place where Cixi used to hold her birthday
ceremonies.
The
One thousand-steps corridor
The corridor takes out nicely decorated with colorful scenery (as the one shown below) representing famous landscapes found South of the Yangzi region, outstanding historical events and well-known people.
After admiring these
beautiful paintings on the Corridor, take the stone stairways in
front of you, you will reach the famous symbol of the Summer
Palace: Foxiang Ge or the Tower of Buddhist Incense. It is a four-floor, 41 meter-high
building.
Foxiang Ge
Last but not least,
I particularly enjoyed another part of Yi He Yuan which will take
you to real movie scenery, Suzhou Street. Actually we got the chance to see there
actors being filmed in a real Chinese movie with many noisy
stunts and beautiful colourful costumes. Suzhou Street and its
typical old-fashioned shops are built following the ancient
design of those in the east China city of Suzhou which I will introduce on another
page.
Suzhou
Street
