The Summer Palace

Welcome to the Summer Palace!

Yihe Yuan, The Summer Palace, is located in a northwestern suburb of Beijing. It is one of the largest and best preserved Chinese imperial gardens. It's located on the shores of man-made Kunming Lake and adjacent several man-made hills--including Longevity Hill. This palace was first built in this area in 1153 under the emperor of the Jin Dynasty. Subsequent emperors under the Yuan and Ming dynasties, extended the grounds much further. The lake started out as a natural spring and eventually was enlarged and deepened into a giant lake. Currently, the entire complex fills 290 hectares! The reason this complex was built in the first place is because the region grows quite hot in the summer--stifling hot. This section of Beijing is much cooler during the summer months and gets nice, cool breezes from the mountain foothills that aren't too distant. The imperial court would depart the Forbidden City in April and move everything out to the Summer Palace where they'd conduct all business until they returned back to the Forbidden City in October.

This lion-dog fictitious animal is one of the gate guards at the entrance to the Summer Palace.