Description
Brief introduction of the Summer Palace:
The Summer Palace tour: The Summer Palace is a best presereved royal family garden still exist in China, it’s history can be traced back to Liao dynasty(916-1125), the royal family went to there for short summer staying started, there were many other royal families from later dynasties went to there also, due to the cooler and fresh air this area, even today still much cooler than Beijing downtowm, although only 20km to the city center.
This is largest garden in it’s kind in China, it covers area 293 hectares, mainly formed by a large manmade lake and moutain, all the garden can be devided into plitical area, living area, and natural view area, their symbilic building are Qinshou Dian, The hall of Benevolence and Longevity, and Long Corridor respectively. (Suggest visiting time 2 hours. )
Typical views in the Summer Palace:
Long Corridor:
It is 728 meters long totally, formed by 4 sections, the 4 sections connected by 4 beautiful wooden towers as joins, this long corridor also is called long art gallary since there were 14,000 paintings along the corridor in the old days, there are still 8,000 paintings left now days. It was first built in 1750 by a emperor for his mother’s birth day as a present.
It was built here for keep sunshine and rain when the emperor’s mother walking here for lake views beside.
The Long Corridor had been destroyed twice in 1860 and 1900 respectively by invaders, this one was rebuilt in 1903.
The Marble Boat in the Summer Palace
The marble located in the northwest of Kunming Lake, on the west bank of Longevity Mountain. Built in 1755. The hull is carved out of marble, with a total length of 36 meters. The two-story white wooden buildings on the ship are decorated with paint into marble patterns, and the tops are decorated with brick carvings, which are exquisite and gorgeous.
The upper building on the boat was originally a ancient Chinese architectural form, but in 1860 when the British and French forces invaded, the Chinese-style building on the boat was burned down. In the nineteenth year of emperor Guangxu (1893), according to the intention of empress dowager Cixi, the original Chinese-style cabin was converted into a Western-style cabin with glass window, and main color painted into marble color. It is the only building in the garden with Western style.