Summer Palace

The Summer Palace, the imperial garden of the Qing Dynasty in China, is located in the western suburbs of Beijing, 15 kilometers away from the city, covering an area of 290 hectares, adjacent to the Yuanmingyuan Garden. It is a large-scale landscape garden based on Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, Hangzhou West Lake as the blueprint, drawing on the design techniques of Jiangnan gardens. It is also the most complete imperial palace, known as the "Royal Garden Museum" and a national key tourist attraction.

Before the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, four large royal gardens were built in the western suburbs of Beijing. In the fifteenth year of Qianlong (1750), Emperor Qianlong used 4.48 million silver to rebuild the Qingyi Garden for the honor of his mother, Xiaosheng Empress, and formed a 20-kilometer-long imperial garden area from Qinghua Garden to Xiangshan. In the ten year of Xianfeng (1860), Qingyi Garden was destroyed by the British and French coalition forces. Guangxu fourteen years (1888) reconstruction, renamed the Summer Palace, as summer resort. In the 26th year of Guangxu (1900), the Summer Palace was destroyed by the Eight-Power Coalition Army, and the treasures were looted. After the destruction of the Qing Dynasty, the the Summer Palace was destroyed again during the warlords' War and Kuomintang rule.

On March 4, 1961, the Summer Palace was promulgated as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, together with Chengde Summer Resort, Zhuozheng Garden and Liuyuan, known as China's four famous gardens. In November 1998, the Summer Palace was listed in the World Heritage List. In May 8, 2007, the Summer Palace was officially approved by the National Tourism Administration as a national 5A tourist attraction. In 2009, the Summer Palace was selected as the largest existing imperial garden in China by the world record association of China. The park will stop selling tickets after September 28, 2018 when the park is full.

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