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The Summer Palace
The Summer Palace lies about 20 km northwestern
outskirts of Beijing, it is up to now the best preserved
and the largest imperial gardens in China.
In 1153, the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty
Wan Yanliang built a temporary palace here called the "Garden
of Golden Waters" as his summer resort. In 1888, the
Empress Dowager Ci'xi decided to spend the money originally
earmarked for the Chinese Navy and rebuilt the garden, she
herself gave it its present name of Yi He Yuan (Garden of
Cultivated Harmony), and the Chinese inscription of the
name was written in Emperor Guangxu's handwriting.
Since then, the Empress Dowager Ci'xi started
to spend every summer here and had it restored after it
was damaged again in 1900. Hence the name, the Summer Palace.
The main features of the Summer Palace
are Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill. Like most imperial
palaces in China, the Summere Palace is divided into three
parts: Halls for political affairs, living quarters and
religious buildings.The most important structures of the
Summer Palace is: Painting Walkway, the longest walkway
in the Chinese gardens with altogether over 14,000 traditional
Chinese paintings on the beams and crossbeams. Marble Boat,
which was built for the 50th birthday celebration of Empress
Dowager Ci'x, and where can enjoy the hazy scene over the
lake in rainy days.
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