UNESCO World Heritage SiteNational 5A Scenic AreaNorth China
The Summer Palace
颐和园 · Beijing, Beijing
China's largest and best-preserved imperial garden, blending lake, hills and elegant pavilions.
The Summer Palace is a vast imperial retreat dominated by Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, dotted with halls, corridors, bridges and a marble boat. It is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, where temples and pavilions are arranged to imitate the scenery of West Lake in Hangzhou.
Originally built in the mid-18th century as the Qingyi Garden for the Qianlong Emperor, it was looted and rebuilt, becoming the summer residence of Empress Dowager Cixi. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998, praised as an outstanding expression of Chinese landscape garden art.
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