Summer Palace

The Summer Palace is in Beijing, the capital of China.

It is a giant garden with a lake, a hill, bridges and many pretty buildings. Emperors once lived here.

The Summer Palace lies about 10 kilometers northwest of the center of Beijing. It is an imperial garden: a garden made for China's emperors and their families.

Its two main parts are Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill. Around them, builders placed halls, pavilions, palaces, temples and bridges. UNESCO says the natural hills and water and the buildings form a harmonious whole, a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

UNESCO describes the Summer Palace as a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, in which hills and open water are combined with pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges. Its property covers 297 hectares about 10 km northwest of Beijing.

The garden served, UNESCO says, political and administrative, residential and recreational purposes in a landscape of lakes and hills, following the Chinese idea of balancing human works with nature. About 90 percent of it is garden for enjoying views.

A tall tower with eight sides stands on the hill. It is 41 meters high!

A long covered walkway is decorated with more than 10,000 paintings.

At the center of the buildings on the south side of the hill rises a great eight-sided tower, three stories and 41 meters high, resting on eight huge wooden pillars and roofed with glazed tiles.

The Long Corridor, a covered walkway 728 meters long, has more than 10,000 paintings on its walls and ceilings. In the lake, the Seventeen Arch Bridge joins an island to the shore, and the West Dike carries six bridges, each in a different style.

ICOMOS describes the centerpiece of the south side of the hill, which it calls the Tower of the Fragrance of Buddha: octagonal, three stories and 41 m high, carried on eight massive pillars of lignum vitae wood and roofed with many kinds of glazed tiles. To its west stands the Baoyun Bronze Pavilion, 7.5 m high and made entirely of bronze.

The Long Corridor (728 m) carries more than 10,000 paintings. Kunming Lake holds three large islands; the southern one is linked to the East Dike by the Seventeen Arch Bridge, and the West Dike has six bridges in different styles.

Today the Summer Palace is a park that everyone can visit.

In the photo, little boats float on the lake below the hill and its tall tower.

The Summer Palace has been a public park since 1924. UNESCO says it has always had the highest level of protection, so its design and landscape have been kept.

The photo was taken on 6 April 2025 from across Kunming Lake. Small boats with roofs float on the water, a white stone railing runs along the shore, and Longevity Hill rises behind, with the tall tower, a stone terrace and a building with a colorful tiled roof near the top.

Protected since 1957 by Beijing and since 1961 at the national level, the Summer Palace has kept its original design, planning and landscape, UNESCO says, while the government works to protect its setting from the pressure of urban growth.

The photograph (6 April 2025, by Xiquinho Silva; its Chinese caption names Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake) shows small roofed boats on the lake, a white balustrade along the shore, trees covering the hill, the great octagonal tower on its tall stone terrace and a building with a colorful tiled roof near the summit.