The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) and its gardens
See more Castles & Palaces. Near to Beijing (10.91 km) in China.
|
More holidays »
Featured Holiday
Three thousand structures make up the Summer Palace which is like a vast museum to traditional Chinese art, architecture and gardening. Pavilions, bridges, towers, statues and corridors are included in this figure as well as shrines and larger buildings. The whole environment is carefully designed as a showcase for the intricate beauty of Chinese arts to compliment the equally revered natural environment. A huge, two storey boat made of elaborately carved marble is understandably one of the main attractions, another is the Long Corridor, a richly covered decorated walkway running 730 metres and incorporating over 14,000 individual paintings depicting traditional scenes, great architecture, myths and heros. The grand palace buildings are set on man made features Longevity Hill, topped by Duobao Pagoda and Kunming Lake which shape the layout of the rest of the compound. The hill was built with the soil from the lake which covers three quarters of the compound. Most of the main structures are on the front of the hill above the lake, creating a crowded layout of competing grandeur which is just the right side of too busy. The back of the hill is designed with reflection in mind and is more like an incredibly opulent and well planned garden. This setting was first used in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) for a garden, the Garden of Clear Ripples, which was much appreciated and replicated, then gradually built upon to become the Summer Palace. Long Corridor was part of the original construction and runs along the lake shore at the foot of the mountain - it was built to protect the emperor’s mother from the elements on her walks thorough the garden. South of the Long Corridor is the 17 Arch Bridge engraved with 500 lions. Click here for a suggested route through the Summer Palace. www.kinabaloo.com/summer_palace.html
3 / 5
Review by editor ‘Summer Palace and Imperial Garden’'The Summer Palace in Beijing – first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the war of 1860 and restored on its original foundations in 1886 – is a masterpiece ... Read more » Review by press. Have you been here? Why not add your own review. |
«
»
More great holidays » Selected holidays and vacations
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
