Summer Palace Introduction
1 min readThe Summer Palace（literally“Gardens of Nurtured Harmony”）
is a former imperial palace and now a park and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Beijing.The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake.It covers an expanse of 2.9square kilometres，three quarters of which is water.
Longevity Hill is about 60 metres high and has a series of buildings on it.The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions，while the back hill in sharp contrast is quiet with natural beauty.
The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometres was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill.In the Summer Palace，one can find a variety of palaces，garden and other classical architectural structures.
In December 1998，UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List.It declared the Summer Palace“a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions，halls，palaces，temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value.”It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park.
