Main Buildings and Structures in Summer Palace

The East Palace Gate: The East Palace Gate is the main entrance and also the front entrance to the Summer Palace.

Taihu Rock: This huge rock was transported from Taihu Lake in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province of the southern part of China, so it is named Taihu Lake.  There are  another four rocks placed in each corner of this courtyard representing the four seasons of the year. These five rocks in the courtyard symbolize the beautiful scenery of five peaks in Lushan Mountain, a symbol of longevity.

Bronze Qilin: The Bronze Qilin is placed in the center of the courtyard. It has the head of a dragon, the antlers of a deer, the hooves of an ox, the tail of a lion ad the body of a fish with scales all over it. It was placed here because the emperor believed that it could detect any disloyal subjects.

The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity: The hall’s name came from Confucius doctrine, meaning those who are benevolent can enjoy a long life. This hall was the place where Emperor Guangxu held audience and handled state affairs with Empress Dowager Cixi when they lived in the Summer Palace. Inside the hall, the emperor’s throne is in the middle of the hall. There are two big fans, made of peacock feathers placed on both sides of the throne. A big plaque hung above the throne with four Chinese characters”寿协仁符“， meaning the emperor who shows benevolence in running the government can live a long life. Incense burners and crane-shaped candlesticks are made of cloisonne, placed in front of the throne. The elephant-shaped incense burner placed on both sides of the throne symbolizes universal peace. A big screen with glass mirror is placed behind the throne. There are 226 Chinese characters of the word  ‘Longevity” inlaid on glass mirror. Two scroll-painting hung on each side of the wall known as “100 bats holding the character Longevity”. Each scroll-painting painted with a big Chinese character”寿” with 100 bats in the background. The character”寿” is Empress Dowager Cixi’s handwriting while the “bat” symbolizes happiness.

The Garden of Virtuous Harmony

Acturally here is a big theater, so it is also called the Great Theater Building or the Big Stage. It was built in 1895 just in time for the 60th birthday celebration of Empress Dowager Cixi. The big stage is a three-story structure, 21 meters high and 17 meters in diameter. In the ceiling and on the floor there were some trapdoors for the performers to fly down from the upper part and to appear from the lower part, symbolizing the “celestial beijings” to fly down from the sky and the “devils” to appear form the earth. There was also a well and five ponds built under the stage for realistic water scenes and for acoustic sound effects. Today, the Big Stage is open to the public with seven exhibition rooms.

The Hall of Jade Ripples

This beautiful courtyard was built in 1750, and was the place where Emperor Qianlong used to stay and spend his leisure hours with his ministers  and friends. Later Emperor Guangxu stayed here when he was in the Summer Palace. But after the failure of the Reform Movement in 1898, Emperor Guangxu was under house arrest here. In the courtyard the two annex chambers were sealed by brick walls reached to the ceiling, lengthwise across the chamber, to prevent Emperor Guangxu from escaping.

The Hall of Happiness and Longevity

Here was the residence for Empress Dowager Cixi. After it was rebuilt in 1889, she lived here from April to October every year for the rest of her lifetime. THere are four chambers inside. The outer-chamber in the east was the breakfast room and tearoom for Empress Dowager Cixi; the inner-chamber in the east was her dressing room. The west inner-room was her bedroom and the west outer-room was the room for her to read and sign the documents. In the center of the hall, there is a large, long table, at which Empress Dowager Cixi had her meals everyday. 128 dishes would be served during each meal, so a great deal of money was spent on her meals. There are two big porcelain plates placed on each side of the long table for holding fruit, but the fruit was not for eating just for smelling the fragrance. There are two beautiful embroideries placed on either side of this hall. One is ” a peacock displaying its full plumage” the other on is “ a hundred birds paying ho mage to the phoneix”. The chandeliers hanging up in the middle of the ceiling were installed in 1903, presented by the Germans.

Family Bankruptcy Rock

A huge rock played in the middle of this courtyard is know as  Family Bankruptcy Rock”. The story is like this: A Ming dynasty official named Mi Wangzhog, a true lover of collecting grotesque shaped rocks, discovered this rock on Fangshan Mountain, 70 kilometers southwest of Beijing. He wanted to transport it to his own garden “Shaoyuan”, the present site of Beijing University. But after spending all his money, he still could not succeed in doing this. Since he fell into financial difficulties, he had to leave the rock on the roadside somewhere near Liangxiang County, 30 kilometers southwest of Beijing; hence it was nicknamed ” Family Bankruptcy Rock”. Later, this big rock was discovered by Emperor Qianlong, he ordered to transport it to the Garden of Clear Ripples ad laid in front of the Hall of Happiness and longevity as a screen wall.

Long Corridor

The Long Corridor is 728 meters long with 27 sections. It was first built in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong for his mother to enjoy the rainy scenes on Kunming Lake as well as to shade her from the sunshine in summer. There are totally over 14,000 paintings and pictures along the Long Corridor, More than 8,000 large paintings are painted on the Long Corridor. These colorful paintings consists of four kinds: landscapes and scenic spots; beautiful flowers and birds; Chinese architecture; human figures and classical stories. The Long Corridor has been restored and repainted for several times. In 1900, the Long Corridor was listed in the ” Guinness World Records” as the longest painted corridor in the world, and in 1998, it was listed as a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO.

The Hall of Dispelling Clouds: This was the place where Empress Dowager Cixi used to celebrate her birthday on the 10th day of the tenth lunar month each year. During the birthday celebration, all the important civil and military officials would pay their respects to her.

The Tower of Buddhist Incense:

This is the symbol of Summer Palace. It was first built in 1758 for Emperor Qianlong’s mother to come and worship Gods here. When Empress Dowager stayed in the Summer Palace, she used to come and worship Gods on the 1st ad 15th day of each month.

The temple of the Sea of Wisdom:

This was built in 1750. The name of this temple came from Buddhist scriptures. It means ” the wisdom of Buddha is as vast as the sea”, so the temple is named ” the temple of Sea of wisdom”. It was entirely built with bricks, stone and glazed tiles, so it is also known as ” Beamless Hall”. On the outer wall of the temple, there are 1,008 exquisite Buddha statues. But most of the Buddha statues were damaged by the Anglo-French Allied Forces and the Allied Forces of Eight Powers in 1860 and 1900 respectively.

The Hall of Listening to Orioles

This was a stage built by Emperor Qianlong for his mother to enjoy Peking opera and other performances. But later the stage was used b Empress Dowager Cixi. After the Garden of Virtuous Harmony was built, here became a residence for the imperial concubines. After the failure of the Reform Movement in 1898, Zhenfei was put under house arrest. Now, it is a fancy restaurant for  tourists.

Marble Boat

The Marble Boat is 36 meters long and was first built in 1755 by Emperor Qianlong. The Marble Boat stood for the stability of the Qing Dynasty and symbolized that the Qing Dynasty would be as solid as rock and never be overturned.Originally, the upper part fo the boat was built with a Chinese-style wooden superstructure and painted to look like marble. But in 1860, the wooden superstructure was burnt down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces. In 1893, when Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt the Marble Boat, she ordered to have two marble water wheels added outside the Marble Boat, and a European-style wooden superstructure was built on the top of the boat, which was painted to look like marble. There is a big mirror on each floor of the Marble Boat. During the rainy days the emperor or the Empress Dowager would sit in front of the mirror, sipping tea and enjoying the ripples in the lake reflected from the mirror. They felt as if they were floating on the lake.

The 17-Arch Bridge and Bronze OX

The 17-Arch Bridge was built in 1750 and it is the largest bridge in the Summer Palace. It is 150 meters long, 8 meters wide and 544 stone lions carved on the top of the balusters. And there is a Bronze Ox placed on the East Dyke. In ancient China, the ox was used  as a symbol of flood control. When the construction ok Kunming Lake was finished, Emperor Qianlong placed a bronze ox at the East Dyke to symbolize water control. There are 80 Chinese Characters cast on the back of the Bronze Ox, known as “80 Characters Inscription on Gilded Bronze Ox” written by Emperor Qianlong, just to explain its presence.

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Author: AmoyTrip.com--Main Buildings and Structures in Summer Palace
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