The Summer Palace (simplified Chinese: 颐和园; traditional Chinese: 頤和園; pinyin: Yíhé Yuán; literally “Gardens of Nurtured Harmony”) is mainly dominated by the Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. Situated on the western outskirts of Haidian District, the Summer Palace is 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from central Beijing. It used to be one of the temporary imperial palaces for the Qing Dynasty Emperors. The Summer Palace today is the largest royal park in China, and is well preserved as a Key Culture Relics Protection Site. It holds a collection of ancient arts and also has breathtaking sceneries and magnificent architecture. The Summer Palace is the archetypal Chinese garden, and is amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. In 1998, it was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
The Summer Palace is actually a reconstruction based on the Qingyi Palace. In AD 1750, Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty spent 4.48 million silver dollars on establishing the Qingyi Palace, a present to his mother, Xiaosheng. This palace served to c
onnect four other royal palaces, forming a splendid imperial garden. However, in AD 1860, the 10th year of Emperor Xianfeng, Qingyi Palace was burnt down during the war with Britain and France. Later in AD 1888, the last Empress in Chinese history, Ci Xi, wanted to hold a grand ceremony to celebrate her 60th birthday. In the name of raising war funds, she levied a heavy tax on people and gathered more than 5 million silver dollars, which was enough for the reconstruction. Then she asked one of the most outstanding architects in Qing Dynasty, Changyan Lei to take charge of the project. The new palace was named the Summer Palace. It was frequently visited by the royal family in summer because of its cool environment and its beautiful lake scene. Although the Summer Palace experienced a terrible devastation in AD 1900 and was looted of almost all its treasures, it remains stunningly beautiful. A tour around the Summer Palace is undoubtedly a feast for eye. If you are planning to travel to Beijing, remember to put it in your schedule, because if you do not visit the Summer Palace your trip in Beijing.
Summer Palace Attractions
Summer Palace Story
1. The Cold Palace
To understand where the Cold Palace is, we have to talk about the concubines of the emperor. The feudal emperor had supreme power and he could pick whoever he wanted to be his concubine. Therefore, the emperor had a great number of concubines living in the royal palace. However, if a concubine became out of favour with the emperor, she was left to rot in the palace because she could not leave the palace at will. This was the most tragic end. The Cold Palace of the Summer Palace does not refer to a particular palace; anyplace where those concubines or sons of the emperor were imprisoned is commonly called “the Cold Palace”. And there were several such places in the Summer Palace. Cheng Fei, one of the imperial concubines at the end of the Ming Dynasty, offended the powerful eunuch Wei Zhong xian, and was taken from Changchun Palace(where the concubines lived in the Imperial Palace) to Qianxi in the western part of the Summer Palace, and lived there for four years. Many other concubines had also been driven there. It is said that the most favoured concubine of Guangxu Emperor, Zhen Fei, was shut inside the Beisan Tower to the north of Jingqi Tower, before she was drowned in the well by the order of Empress Ci Xi. The place was destroyed but it still can be traced on the west of Zhen Fei Well.
2. Empress Ci Xi’s meals in the Summer Palace
Being the last empress of China, Empress Ci Xi was famous for her luxurious lifestyle. When she stayed in the Summer Palace, the servants had to prepare hundreds of delicious dishes for her. All the dishes she took could be divided into meat dishes, vegetable dishes, pastry, and fried snacks. The chefs used all kinds of precious ingredients such as pearl powder, bear’s paw, edible bird’s nest, etc.
Empress Ci Xi greatly enjoyed the dishes cooked with flowers. She loved chicken soup with chrysanthemum petals. Sometimes when she was wandering inside the palace, she would even pick a chrysanthemum and eat it. Apart from this, she also liked to take them with tea, which became quite popular among the common Chinese people. Rose, lotus, and lily teas were her favorites.
Every meal of Empress Ci Xi’s was like a grand ceremony. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner there would be more than a hundred different dishes, and for high tea, about fifty dishes. All the dishes were very elaborately prepared. Take the rice as an example, every grain in the rice were carefully selected by the maids. It was quite a tedious job. The cost of one single meal of Ci Xi equals the annual living expenses of an ordinary family.
To sustain her extravagance, she levied heavy taxes on the people. Many people started to resist her rule. She was very afraid that somebody might poison her dishes, so she asked a servant to put a silver needle in every dish before she ate them. If the dish was poisoned, the needle would lose brightness and turn dark.
3. The Tower of Buddhist Incense
It’s said that the Tower of the Buddhist Incense (simplified Chinese: 佛香阁; traditional Chinese: 佛香阁; pinyin:Fóxiāng Gé; literally “the Tower of Buddhist Incense”) was built to drive away the ghosts.
When Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty decided to build a royal palace there, he wanted to remove the Longevity Hill so that the Kunming Lake would be larger. However, when the builders dug half-way down the hill, they were surprised to see that they had reached a grave. The tombstone was inscribed “Queen Wen”. The builders didn’t know what to do with the grave, so they past the news onto the Emperor. Queen Wen was a real character in Chinese history. She was the wife of Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1206-1368). Since she possessed extraordinary political wisdom, Kublai Khan loved her very much and held an elaborate funeral for her after she had died. No wonder Emperor Qianlong was curious about those exquisite antiques buried with her. So he went to the construction site and asked the builders to open the tomb. When they got into the tomb, they found a curse inscribed by the entrance, saying ”Whoever disturbs the tomb would be severely punished.”. Emperor Qianlong got really scared, so he told the builders to close the grave and then he ran away. Later, he went to a great Buddhist master and asked him how to avoid Queen Wen’s revenge. The master said that if he built a Buddhist tower on top of the Longevity Hill, the ghost of Queen Wen would be locked up and she would not bring any harm. Qianlong followed his advice, and that is how the Tower of Buddhist Incense came into being.
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