The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace, the Chinese imperial garden of the Qing Dynasty, is located in the western suburbs of Beijing, 15 kilometers from the city center, covering an area of about 290 hectares (717 acres). The attractions of the Summer Palace are centered around Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake. Longevity Hill can be divided into the front hill and the back hill. Most of the historical buildings were located along the north-south axis of Longevity Hill. Kunming Lake covers about three quarters of the total area of the garden. It is said that the layout of Kunming Lake was based on the West Lake in Hangzhou.

Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty ordered the construction of the royal garden named "Qingyi Garden" (Garden of Clear Ripples) for the birthday ceremony of his mother between 1750 and 1764, using Kunming Lake, the former reservoir of the Yuan Dyansty's captial and Longevity Hill as the basic framework. The garden was burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Force in 1860 and was reconstructed and renamed as the Summer Palace (Yihe Garden) by Emperor Guangxu in 1888. It was said that Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds for the garden's restoration so that she would have a resort for amusement in summer. In 1900, the Summer Palace was destroyed again by the Eight-Power Allied Force and was restored in the next two years. The Summer Palace was open to the public in 1914.

With its famous natural views and cultural interests, the Summer Palace has long been recognized as "The Museum of Royal Gardens". It is now a national key tourist attraction in China. The Summer Palace is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, intergrating political and administrative, residential, spiritual and recreational functions within a landscape of lakes and mountains, reflecting the Chinese philosophy of balance between hunman beings and nature. The Summer Palace was listed as the four famous gardens of China together with Chengde Summer Imperial Resort, the Humble Administrator's Garden and the Lingering Garden.

Being the most well-preserved royal garden in China, the Summer Palace has profound influence on Chinese garden design. In 1998, the Summer Palace ranked amongst the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. In 2007, the Summer Palace was officially approved by the National Tourism Administration as a national 5A tourist attraction.

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou, also referred to as Suzhou Gardens in short, are a group of delicate gardens located in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province of China. The first classical garden was constructed during the Spring and Autumn period in the 6th century BC. More gardens were built in the centuries that followed and most of them were private family gardens of scholars of that time. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the construction of the gardens came to its prime time because of the prosperity of the Suzhou region in that period. It is said that there were more than 200 gardens all over the city and Suzhou was known as the "paradise on earth" and the "City of Gardens". Nowadays, 19 of the 69 well preserved gardens are open to the public as tourist attractions. Among them, famous gardens such as Humble Administrator's Garden, Lingering Garden, Master of the Nets Garden, Mountain Villa with Embracing Beauty, Canglang Pavilion, Lion Grove Garden, Couple's Retreat Garden, Garden of Cultivation and Retreat & Reflection Garden are regarded as typical examples of the Suzhou Gardens.

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou represent the development and maturity of Chinese landscape garden design over the span of more than two thousand years. The garden designers derived their inspiration from ancient Chinese landscape paintings and integrated Chinese traditional philosophy and cultural connotations with garden art, creating a refined, elegant, and free style of landscaping. The Classical Gardens of Suzhou are national 5A tourist attractions in China and two groups of them were added to UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1997 and 2000 respectively.

Yuanmingyuan Park

Yuanmingyuan Park, also called the Old Summer Palace, is a large-scale royal garden built in the Qing Dynasty. Yuanmingyuan, adjacent to the present-day Summer Palace, is located in Haidian District, in thr northwestern suburb of Beijing, covering a total area of about 3.47 square kilometres (857 acres). The park is composed of three parts: Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuanmingyuan), Garden of Eternal Spring (Changchunyuan) and Elegant Spring Garden (Qichunyuan).

The construction of Yuanmingyuan Park started in the year of 1709 in the reign of the Emperor Kangxi. Emperor Kangxi bestowed the garden to one of his sons Yinzhen, who later came to throne as Emperor Yongzheng. Emperor Yongzheng expanded the original garden as a summer resort. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, Western-style palaces, pavilion and fountains were constructed because of the emperor's interest in European-style architecture. One of the most famous scenic spot was the spectacular clock fountain called Haiyan Tang built in front of the largest palace in the garden. The fountain had sculptures of twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac that spouted water in turn every 2 hours, and all of the animals were scheduled to spout water in concert at noon. Yuanmingyuan was called the "Garden of Gardens" in its heyday. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, Anglo-French Allied Force looted and torched Yuanmingyuan. Valuable artworks such as sculptures, porcelain, jade, elaborate textiles and gold objects were stolen and are now exhibited in museums around the world. In 1873, Emperor Tongzhi attempted to restore the garden. However, due to lack of financial resources, the emperor finally agreed to stop the restoration in 1874. In 1900, the majority of the buildings that had survived or had been restored were burnt down for good by the Eight-Power Allied Forces. The garden's former beauty and glory were gone, and the entire place became clusters of ruins and debris. Yuanmingyuan was left abandoned and used by local farmers as agricultural land. In the 1980s the site of the former garden was turned into a historical site and famous tourist attraction.

Chengde Mountain Resort

Chengde Mountain Resort, also known as Chengde Ligong (Chengde Detached Palace) or Rehe Palace, is located in the city of Chengde in Hebei Province of China, covering a total area of over 5.64 million square meters. The Mountain Resort is a complex of imperial palaces and gardens and the largest existing imperial palace-garden complex in China.

The Mountain Resort was built in the reign of Emperor Kangxi, who selected the best 36 scenic spots in the resort and named them personally. Emperor Qianlong expanded the resort, selected and named another 36 scenic spots in honor of his grandfather Emperor Kangxi. These scenic spots are now known as the "72 scenic spots" of Chengde Mountain Resort. Emperors of the Qing Dynasty such as Kangxi and Qianlong spent summer in the resort to avoid the summer heat of Beijing and handled military and political affairs of the country.

Chengde Mountain Resort includes four parts: the palace area, the lake area, the plain area and the mountain area. In the resort, imperial gardens and temples of various architectural styles blended in harmony into a landscape of lakes, pastureland and forests. It is a glorious milestone in the history of Chinese garden art and a masterpiece of Chinese classical imperial gardening. The Mountain Resort belongs to Chin's four famous gardens besides the Summer Palace, the Humble Administrator's Garden and Lingering Garden. It is a 5A Tourist Attraction in China and was list as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1994.