CHINA 5A TRAVEL
The grandest of China's classical gardens — a Qing-dynasty imperial playground where Longevity Hill rises over the willow-fringed Kunming Lake, all pavilions, painted corridors and the shimmering jade-and-gold Tower of Buddhist Incense.
Laid out in 1750 as the Garden of Clear Ripples and rebuilt by Empress Dowager Cixi in the late 19th century, the Summer Palace is the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China, inscribed by UNESCO in 1998. Its designers shaped Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake into a landscape homage to Hangzhou's West Lake, with the Western Hills borrowed as a natural backdrop — a technique Chinese garden masters call 'borrowing scenery'.
The 290-hectare park divides into three acts: the halls of state around the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity; the empress's waterside residences of the Yulan and Leshou Courts; and the great scenic belt of hill and lake, crowned by the Tower of Buddhist Incense on its mountainside terrace above the 728-metre Long Corridor.
In spring, mountain peach and magnolia bloom against vermilion columns; in summer, lotus pads crowd the lake's bays; and on fine evenings the setting sun gilds the Seventeen-Arch Bridge stretching toward South Lake Island — the classic postcard that has introduced the garden to the world.
Highlights
Long Corridor
728 metres of painted beams and 14,000 Suzhou-style landscape panels — the longest decorated gallery in classical Chinese architecture.
Tower of Buddhist Incense
The three-tiered pagoda crowning Longevity Hill, with lake-and-city views from its terrace (¥10).
Kunming Lake Cruise
Ferry and dragon-boat crossings to South Lake Island drift past the Marble Boat and willow shores.
Seventeen-Arch Bridge
The 150-metre stone bridge whose 544 lions glow gold at sunset around the winter solstice.
Suzhou Market Street
A recreated Jiangnan canal street of shopfronts along the back lake — the emperor's riverside shopping fantasy.
West Dike
A willow-and-peach causeway stitched with six Ming-style bridges, modelled on West Lake's Su Causeway.
Photo Gallery
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