Ancient Chinese architecture Summer Palace
2 min readThe Summer Palace
The Summer Palace in northwest suburban Beijing is the largest and most complete imperial garden existing in China with a worldwide reputation.
It was first built in 1153 as an imperial palace.It was rebuilt by Empress Ci Xi in 1888 with a large sum of money that had been appropriated to build the Chinese navy，after it was burnt down along with the Yuanming Yuan by Anglo-French allied forces in 1860.
It covers an area of 304 hectares.The Kunming Lake，as a main part of the Summer Palace，makes up four-fifths of this royal park.This natural lake is more than 3，500 years old.The ribbon-like Seventeen-Arch Bridge serves as a link between the South Lake Island and the east bank Cloud-Dispelling Hall，the Second Palace Gate，the Pavilion of the Buddhist Incense and the Wisdom Sea lay over the south slope of Longevity Hill and shape an axis line rising up layer by layer.The Pavilion of the Fragrance of Buddha，41 meters high，is decorated with glazed tiles.Its walls are carved with 1，008 niches and images of Buddha. The 728-meter-long Long Corridor runs east-west along the lake as an ingenious connector between the Lake and the Hill.
The Summer Palace was added to the world cultural heritage list in 1998. The great scenic spots contain a nation’s profound philosophical and aesthetic tradition.
The Beihai Park
The Beihai Park is situated in the west of the Forbidden City. It was originally built for Kublai Khan before the Imperial Palace was even imagined. It came into being in the real sense more than 800 years ago(see Figure107).
The park covers an area of 69 hectares, including a 39hectare lake. The huge lake is divided into three parts: Beihai(the North Lake), Zhonghai(the Central Lake) and Nanhai(the South Lake). In the park, pavilions and towers stand gracefully among the beautiful lakes and hills, grass and trees. White Pagoda is the symbolic structure of the park. Nine-Dragon Screen Wall, Nine-Dragon Wall, Five Dragon Pavilions and the Hall of Ripples are all built of glazed tiles. Dragons are carved in different colors and postures.A walk around the various scenic spots in Beihai is definitely enjoyable.
Figure 107 Beihai Park There is a legend related to the park. In the past the em-perors tried to find a way to be immortal. They heard that fairies and immortals lived in Penglai, Yingzhou and Fangzhang. Those celestial beings invented a wonderful immortal pill. The emperors ordered their messengers across the seas in search of these wonderful pills one group after another, but the messengers never returned. The emperors had no other way out but to build a fairyland near their Palace as a comfort to themselves and their un-realized dreams of being immortal.
