Journey To ChinaLast updated
Summer Palace guide
Qianlong's landscape and the late-Qing palace
The Qianlong emperor created the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 around Longevity Hill and an expanded Kunming Lake. Anglo-French forces destroyed much of it in 1860. Reconstruction began in the late nineteenth century under the name Summer Palace, when the complex again became a court residence and a setting for government around Empress Dowager Cixi.
The East Palace Gate opens near the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, where court affairs were handled, and the residential courts of the Hall of Jade Ripples and Hall of Joyful Longevity. These rooms give the lake and hill a political context before the route reaches the Long Corridor.
The Tower of Buddhist Incense makes the main vertical axis
From the lakeshore, the Gate of Dispelling Clouds, Hall of Dispelling Clouds, Tower of Buddhist Incense and buildings above it climb the front of Longevity Hill. The tower is both a religious building and the garden's strongest visual anchor. The climb reveals wider views at each terrace, while the Long Corridor below runs for more than 700 metres along the water with painted beams and framed views.
Water changes the route
Kunming Lake covers roughly three quarters of the park. Boats link selected piers when services operate, turning the lake into transport as well as scenery. The Seventeen-Arch Bridge connects the east shore to Nanhu Island; the West Causeway uses smaller bridges, willows and seasonal blossom to create a quieter sequence of views.
Bridge, island and distant hills organise the broadest view in the southeast part of Kunming Lake.
The north side changes again. Suzhou Street recreates a waterside market below the hill, and the back-hill temples occupy a narrower valley. Entering at Beigongmen brings these places first and involves more climbing before the front-hill monuments. The West Gate instead suits the causeway and open lake.
Summer lotus, spring peach and willow, autumn colour and winter's open sightlines each emphasise a different part of the design. Boat routes, inner attractions and opening areas vary by season, so the entrance and exit can be chosen around the part of the garden that matters most that day.
