Beijing (7) - The Summer Palace Royal Park

We had a long tour in the Summer Palace - Yihe yuan (颐和园) for almost the whole day on 18/05. We took a bus there as the subway was not available then (Note: The access via subway is now available via Subway Line 4, operating since Sept 09) .

The Summer Palace is the largest and well-preserved royal park from the Qing Dynasty. It was initially built for the Imperial Garden in the Longevity Hill, based on the instructions from the Emperor QianLong in 1749, in celebration of his mother's 60th birthday. It has subsequently served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi , who diverted 30 million taels of silver, originally designated for the Chinese navy , into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace is composed mainly of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake and occupies an area of 294 hectares. In 1998, It was inscribed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO and was described as Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. 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."

We entered via the East Palace Gate, the major entrance to the Summer Palace.

The East Palace Gate

The next architectural complex we saw is The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity is the first .

Entering the gate into The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity


A big stone placed in the middle of the courtyard.

In the courtyard there is an exquisitely sculpted bronze beast called a Kylin, with dragon head, lion tail, deer horn, and cattle hoof. Chinese believes the Kylin guards against destruction by fire.

Kylin

The next buiding is the Garden of Virtue and Harmony (Deheyuan), where Emperor Guangxu and Empress Dowager Cixi watched the performances of the Peking opera. It was built in honor of the Empress Dowager Cixi's sixtieth birthday. Here, we watched for a while the Chinese music performance as well as dances from Tang Dynasty.

The Garden of Virtue and Harmony

The Garden of Virtue and Harmony - Musical Performance


The Garden of Virtue and Harmony - Dances Performance from Tang Dynasty

We came to the Hall of Joyful Longevity (Leshoutang) for a short visit. Inside the courtyard, there placed copper deer, crane, and vase as a group of articles.

Hall of Joyful Longevity

We moved to the Long Gallery - Changlang (长廊) which links Longevity Hill with Kunming Lake. It is 728 meters in length and is the longest gallery in Chinese gardens. It is really an impressive art gallery with paintings depicting different legendary stories.

Long Gallery

Look at the crowd walking in the Long Gallery

The Octagonal Pavilions on the joint in between

Our next target was Tower of Buddhist Incense - Foxiangge (佛香阁). it can be seen from throughout the area. Facing Kunming Lake (昆明湖) southward, backing on the Hall of the Sea of Wisdom.

The Tower of Buddhist Incense

Hall of Dispelling Clouds - Paiyundian (排云殿)

Kunming Lake from the hill

What a steep stairs!

We moved on into the Suzhou Market Street - Suzhoujie (苏州街) , a street 300 meter in length, served as an entertainment place where Emperors and concubines could feel as if they were strolling on a commercial street. We had our lunch here as we are getting tired. I had a terrible fall from the stairs here, which was so painful that caused me to be speechless for a couple of minutes except moaning in pain . I continued the journey with pain at the back after a short rest. What a painful experience here!

Suzhou Market Street


Suzhou Market Street



Suzhou Market Street

We had a short tour in the Garden of Harmonious Interests - Xiequyuan (谐趣园), a typical representative of classical gardens of Southern China.

the Garden of Harmonious Interests

The Garden of Harmonious Interests

After the garden visit, we went on to have a look on the many collections for exhibitions such as precious jewellery, vase, etc.

Vase in display

Previous collection on display

Our next destination is Seventeen-Arch Bridge - Shiqikong Qiao (十七孔桥). Connecting the eastern shore of Kunming Lake in the east and Nanhu Island (南湖岛) in the west, the Seventeen-Arch Bridge was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong; with a length of 150 meters and is the longest bridge in the Summer Palace.

Seventeen-Arch Bridge

Seventeen-Arch Bridge

The Summer Palace is so large that there were a few more places we could not covered in this trip. This is an impressive royal park and I would like to revisit in the future.