This domain of palace temples, gardens, pavilions, lakes and corridors was
once a playground for the imperial court. Royalty came here to elude the
insufferable summer heat that roasted the Forbidden City.
The Summer Palace
with its cool features, water, gardens and hills, was once the palace of choice
for vacationing emperors and Dowager Empresses. It was badly damaged by
Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War and its restoration became a
pet project of Empress Dowager Cixi, the last of the Qing dynasty rulers. Money
earmarked for a modern navy was used for the project but, in a bit of whimsical
irony, the only thing that was completed was the restoration of a marble boat.
The boat now sits at the edge of the lake in all its immobile and nonmilitary
glory. The Palace's full restoration was hampered by the disintegration of the
Qing dynasty and the Boxer Rebellion.
Composed mainly of Longevity Hill and Kunming
Lake, The Summer Palace occupies an
area of 726.5 acres, three quarters of which is water. Guided by nature,
artists designed the gardens exquisitely so that visitors would see marvelous
views and be amazed by perfect examples of refined craftwork using the finest
materials. Centered on the Tower of Buddhist
Incense, the Summer
Palace consists of over 3,000
structures including pavilions, towers, bridges, and corridors.
The main building is the lyrically named Hall of Benevolence and Longevity,
while along the north shore is the Long Corridor, so named because it's, well,
long. There's over 2300ft of corridor, filled with mythical paintings and
scenes. If some of the paintings seem new, that's because many of the murals
were painted over during the Cultural Revolution.
Temple of Heaven
Park
The park's classic Ming architecture gives the park lots of symbolic value.
The Temple of Heaven
is set in the 660-acre park, with four gates at the cardinal points, and walls
to the north and east. It originally functioned as a vast stage for solemn
rites and rituals. All of the buildings in the park, including the Round Altar,
the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, are
tangible conversations between the gods and mortals. The buildings are
carefully thought out homage’s to ancient gods and beliefs; fengshui,
numerology, cosmology and religion all played a part in their original
construction, and the result is an awesome display of the divine in the
architecture and the devil in the detail.