The Palace of Summer

The Palace of Summer synthesizes the essence as much of the imperial gardens of diverse dynasties like of the prevailed ones of the south and the north very well. He is most complete and the one of greater amplitude between the existing ones in China.

The gardening has in our country one long history, very different from the gardens of Europe. As much the imperial gardens, as the prevailed ones, they follow esthetic in that combine the natural beauty and the art.

The Palace of Summer emphasizes by its majesty. It combines the imponencia of the gardens of the north and the refinement of those of the south of the Chngjiang river.

It occupies a surface of 290 has. And it includes/understands three zones: the Imperial Residence, the Hill of the Longevity and the Kunming Lake. The Eastern door is the main one. It leads to first of these zones, that also have like center the Room of the Benevolence and the Longevity (Renshoudian) call Pavilion of the Exercise of the Power. There the emperors dispatched the official subjects. Next to the door there are two stones that they symbolize like guardians to Sun Wukong and Zhubajie (two personages of the novel Peregrination towards the West).

In the dormitory of the palace they exhibit a seat, a screen, a fan, a furnace and lamps in the form of crane. On the screen there are nine enormous dragoons and 226 characters of “ Longevity ", written in different form. In the Yyulan Hall (Waves of Jade) the sad history of the loss of the power is registered. Emperor Guang Xu was prisoner by order of empress Cixi there. Her wife lived in the Yiyun Room, behind the Hall the Waves of Jade.

To the northwest is the Leshou Palace (Longeva Joy), where Cixi lodged, very addict to the pleasures of the table. Only one of its daily banquets was equivalent 3 kg of silver.

To the north of the Hall the Benevolence and the Longevity, it is the Dehe Garden (Virtuous Armonáa). He is one of the three majors theaters construídos in the days of the Qing dynasty. The other two – Changying and Qingyin –, are in the Imperial Palace and the Imperial Mansion of Summer of Chengde. Each birthday of Cixi imagined operas of good augury there.

Of the Leshou Palace towards the west a gallery of 728 ms of the length, is seen vastest of its sort. Of the North border of the Dunming Lake one extends towards the west, like a bow that united the diverse constructions. There are eight thousand designs painted on this gallery.

When leaving her by the Paiyun Door it is the Palace of the Indented Clouds, that leans on the Hill of the Longevity. It is promoted by one double perron, crosses the Dehui Pavilion is necessary to still scale 114 launching slips to arrive at the Foxiang Pavilion (of the Incense of Buddha), on a slope of 58 ms of stop, with four superposed eaves. Empress Cixi used to concur here to venerate Buddha, the Foziang Pavilion is the symbol of the Imperial Palace. It is a representative work of the old Chinese architecture.

Watching from the pavilion downwards, the west, the Baoyun Pavilion is seen (Precious Clouds), also called Bronze Pavilion, in whose construction 207 tons of this metal were used. She is one of works celebrated in the world. Of the Foxiang Pavilion upwards it is the Wuliang Palace. It is the highest construction. Its structure lacks columns and it is only maintained by intercrossed beams. Unique work in its sort.

To the south of the Hill of the Longevity it is the Kunming Lake, with clear waters of green color, In the western part, Xiti (the Dock of the West), that to imitation of Suti, the dock of Hangzhou, divides to the Kunming lake in two parts. In the Dock of the West there are six bridges, between which it emphasizes the one of Yudai: from far it resembles a belt of jade. Qianlong emperor and much later empress Cixi liked to take a walk this way. There is a photography in which the empress appears dressed like a fisherman woman, in company of Li Lianying, his eunuco preferred. A stone dock divides the docks of the East and the West. In the middle, the Bridge of the Seventeen Arcs is raised, to imitation of the Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo). On the pillars of this bridge it has carved 564 from Leon in diverse positions.

In the Kunming Lake they combine the three islands harmoniously, the Bridge of the seventeen Arcs and the Hill of the Longevity.

Three colorful zones embellish the Palace of Summer: the lake, the mountains, and the constructions: the pavilions, palaces and temples, as well as three thousand rooms and different types from constructions that are enlanzan to form a magnificent scene. It has like bottom the Yuquan mountain. There they combine natural and the artificial thing. It is a true example of the Chinese gardening.

Like important place of the political activities of the Qing dynasty, the Palace of Summer registered many histories of the imperial life and reflects on the other hand the apogee and the decay of this dynasty. The Hill of the Longevity was called Wengshan formerly, and on the foot the homonymous lagoon extended. In the Ming dynasty, the Lake of the West of Hangzhou attracted many lawyers who left numerous poems in praise of those green mountains, clear waters and of the aroma of the flowers of remote loto perceived during the summers. By his beauty it was consecrated like Imperial Garden. They were the Qing who constructed five gardens there: Qingyiyuan, in the Hill of the Longevity; Jingmingyuan, in the Hill of the Spring of Jade; Jingyiyuan in the Perfumed Hill. In addition tros two: Changchunyuan and Yuanminyuan. Qingyiyuan was the predecessor of the Palace of Summer, construído on the occasion of the celebration of the sixty years of empress Cixi (1750). During 15º reigned of Qian Long, the Colia Wengshan changed to its name by the one of Hill of the Longevity and the Wengshan Lake by the one of Kunming Lake.

In 1860 during the second War of the Opium these gardens were destroyed and their treasures sacked by the invaders. Empress Cixi ordered to reconstruct them and she gave the name them of Palace of Summer.

Count with a hundred of attractive places. Although rich in allegorical senses, they mainly emphasize the imperial power and the divine power. Muéstrase shows to millenarian history there and the rich national culture.

This classic garden constructed for rejoicing of the emperor and its cut, after the policy of “ open doors " receives every year to million Chinese tourists as as much foreign. It is nowadays a place extremely concurred.