The Summer Palace, a royal garden during the Qing Dynasty in China, formerly known as the Qingyi Garden, is located at 19 Xinjian Gongmen Road, Haidian District, western suburbs of Beijing. It is a large natural landscape garden built using Kunming Lake and Wanshou Mountain as its base sites, based on the scenery of West Lake in Hangzhou, and drawing on some design techniques and artistic conception of Jiangnan gardens. It is also the most well preserved royal palace garden and is known as the Royal Garden Museum. The entire park covers an area of 3.009 square kilometers, with water surface accounting for about three-quarters. It is composed of Wanshou Mountain and Kunming Lake. There are over 100 scenic buildings, more than 20 courtyards of various sizes, and over 3000 ancient buildings distributed in the park, covering an area of nearly 70000 square meters. There are over 1600 ancient and famous trees.
The most prominent feature of the Summer Palace lies in the perfect combination of the natural landscape surrounded by mountains and water, and the royal style palace architecture. The scenic spot design is carried out in real mountains and water, which not only highlights the royal style but also reflects the harmonious unity of gardens, mountains, and water; Both imitating nature and transcending it, skillfully integrating the beauty of nature with artificial carving. The landscaping of the Summer Palace combines the artistic conception of Chinese painting, poetry, and literature, creating a grand atmosphere, brilliant colors, and a fully coordinated relationship with the landscape and green environment of Chinese royal gardens. The Summer Palace has over 40000 cultural relics in its collection, covering almost all categories of Chinese heritage. There are more than 20000 national level cultural relics.
Before the establishment of the park
In the northwest suburbs of Beijing, there used to be a mountain that was a remnant of the Yanshan Mountains. In its heartland, two small hills protruded from the ground, which were Yuquan Mountain and Wanshou Mountain. There is a lake at the foot of the mountain, called Qilili, Dabo Lake or West Lake.
In the early Qing Dynasty, the situation of Wengshan in West Lake was roughly similar to that of the Ming Dynasty. However, due to years of disrepair, some temples and gardens have collapsed, while others are in a semi abandoned state. During the Kangxi period, Wengshan became a grass field for the imperial court to raise horses, and convicted eunuchs were often sent here to cut grass. This practice continued until the 14th year of the Qianlong reign (1749).
Before Qianlong ascended the throne, four large royal gardens had already been built in the western suburbs of Beijing. From Haidian to Xiangshan, these four gardens formed their own system and lacked organic connections with each other. The “Wengshanbo” in the middle became an open area.
In the 29th year of the Qianlong reign (1764), Qingyi Garden was built at a cost of over 4.8 million taels of silver. In Qingyi Garden, based on the concept of the “Three Immortal Mountains on the Sea” in ancient Chinese mythology, three small islands were built in Kunming Lake and the two lakes on the west side: Nanhu Island, Tuancheng Island, and Zaojiantang Island, to metaphorically represent the three mountains on the sea: Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou. The main building in the park is the Da Bao’en Yanshou Temple, and there is a long corridor of over 700 meters. Its architecture and decorative paintings are quite fascinating, with artistic value and numerous tourist attractions. There are very few buildings with administrative and residential properties in the Qingyi Garden of Wanshou Mountain in the Summer Palace. Emperor Qianlong visited Qingyi Garden on the same day and never lived in the garden.
On December 25th, 1912, in the third year of the Xuantong reign, Empress Dowager Longyu and Emperor Puyi issued a decree of abdication at the Qianqing Palace. After Puyi abdicated, the Summer Palace also became a private property of the imperial family that was inferior to the Qing Dynasty and was managed by the Qing Interior Office. In the situation where the imperial system had been abolished, various sectors of society strongly demanded that the Summer Palace be opened to the outside world.
