颐和园——The Summer Palace

World Cultural Heritage------The Summer Palace

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

The Summer Palace is located on the northwest outskirts of Beijing, about 20 kilometers away from the center of the city. It is the best-preserved imperial garden in the world and one of the largest of its kind still in existence in China today.

The Summer Palace is formed mainly of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake. It occupies a total area of over 290 hectares. Longevity Hill covers one quarter of the total area, which is about 70 hectares, while Kunming Lake covers the rest of the three quarters, which is about 220 hectares. Longevity Hill is an extension of the Western Hills. While Kunming Lake used to get water from the springs of Jade Spring Hill, which lies to its west. The peaks of the Western Hills and the pagoda on Jade Spring Hill can be seen in the distance. This is a typical method in garden-building, known as “borrowing the scenery from a distance”.

The Summer Palace is very famous in the world not only because it is an ingenious combination of man-made architecture with the scenic beauty of nature, but also it is an architectural masterpiece and treasure of the traditional are of Chinese gardening. The Summer Palace harmoniously combines artificial and natural attractions into a picturesque landscape.

HISTORY OF THE SUMMER PALACE

The Summer Palace has a history of over 800 years, which goes back to the Liao and Jin Dynasties. The Summer Palace was first built in 1153 during the Jin Dynasty. At that time the hill was called Golden Hill and the lake was called Golden Water Pond. During the Yuan Dynasty, the hill’s na me was changed into Jar Hill, because it was said that an old man had drug up a jar from the hill. And then the lake was changed to Jar Hill Pond. In the Ming Dynasty it was named West Lake. In 1494 Yuanjing Temple was built on the Jar Hill, and later Ming Emperor Zhengde named this area the Wonderful Imperial Garden.

All this wonderful scenery and structures made a good foundation and offered a great advantage for the later Garden of Clear Ripples in the Qing Dynasty.During the Qing Dynasty the famous “Three Hills and Five Gardens” were built in the northwestern suburbs of Beijing. The Summer Palace was called the Garden of Clear Ripples at that time, which was one of the Five Gardens.

The Three Hills are the: Fragrant Hill, Jade Spring Hill and Longevity Hill. The Five Gardens are: Garden of Everlasting Spring, Garden of Perfection and Brightness, Garden of Tranquility and Brightness, Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure, Garden of Clear Ripples.

In 1750, Emperor Qianlong rebuilt the Garden of Clear Ripples f or the purpose of his mother’s 60th birthday celebration. He changed the hill’s name from Jar Hill into Longevity Hill in order to celebrate his mother’s 60th birthday. He also renamed the lake as Kunming Lake because he wanted to follow the example of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty who had trained his navy centuries before Kunming Pool in Chang’an, the capital city at that time (somewhere near Xi An today).