Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Summer Palace or Yihe yuan, China




The Summer Palace or Yihe yuan (chinese simple: 颐和园; traditional Chinese: 颐和园; Pinyin: Yihe Yuan literally means "heaven Raised Harmony") is a palace in Beijing, China. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and Kunming Lake. It covers an area 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of the water. Central Kunming Lake covering a 2.2 square kilometer man made and fully excavated soil used to build Longevity Hill. In the Summer Palace, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.

The Summer Palace started life as the Garden of Clear Ripples (chinese simple: ; traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: Qingyi Yuan) in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Reproduced craftsman architectural style gardens of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks - during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied forces in 1900. Garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, he was given its current name, Yihe Yuan. He served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally intended for the Chinese Navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.
On December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on the World Heritage List.Declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. Natural scenery 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." This is a popular tourist destination, but also serves as a recreational park.
Summer Palace, located northwest of central Beijing, is easily accessible from most parts of the city. Head north at Suzhou Bridge on the north-western 3rd Ring Road, in north Sihai Bridge on the north-west 4th Ring Road, or south to the north of 5th Ring Road at the Zhongguancun / Beiqing Road exit. Public transportation also serves the Summer Palace.

2 comments:

  1. nice information......
    thanks for sharing...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks for visiting my blog..

      please visited again anytime..^^

      Delete