As a royal garden with a long history and beautiful scenery, the Summer Palace has many attractions worth visiting. Here are some recommended attractions:
1. Buddha Pavilion
Highlights: One of the landmark buildings of the Summer Palace, located on the base of the front hill of Wanshou Mountain, is the commanding height of the Summer Palace. Boarding the Foxiang Pavilion, you can overlook the whole Kunming Lake and the Summer Palace, the vision is wide and refreshing.
Cultural significance: Buddha incense Pavilion enshrines Sakyamuni Buddha’s relics, which is one of the important heritages of Chinese Buddhist culture.
2. The Long Corridor
Highlights: The longest gallery in the world, with a total length of 728 meters, the gallery is painted with exquisite paintings, the number of more than 14.000 pieces, and the artistic value is very high. Walking among them, as if through the ancient times, feel the charm of history.
Features: The long corridor connects the distant mountains and near the water, and there are four pavilions in the middle, which means spring, summer, autumn and winter, providing a good place for tourists to enjoy the scenery.
3. Suzhou Street
Highlights: A trading street modeled after the Jiangnan water town, with a total length of about 270 meters and about 70 shops. There are archway, archway, small bridge and flowing water, which combine the style of Jiangnan water town and Manqing Dynasty.
Experience: Now here are some tea houses, snack shops and other antique shops, tourists can experience the ancient business atmosphere and city life here.
4. Seventeen Holes Bridge
Highlights: A very delicate stone bridge in the Summer Palace, built in 1750 in the 15th year of Qing Emperor Qianlong, connects the east bank of Kunming Lake with Nanhu Island. The bridge is named for its 17 holes, and more than 500 stone lions of different shapes are carved on the bridge head and bridge railings, and there are four stone carved exotic beasts at both ends of the bridge railings.
Wonder: Every year around the winter solstice, there will be a “golden light through the hole” wonder.
5. Kunming Lake
Highlights: The main waters of the Summer Palace, the lake is wide, the water is clear, and the surrounding scenery is beautiful. Tourists can take a boat tour, enjoy the scenery of the lake, feel the breeze, and feel comfortable.
Attractions: Lake Island, 17 hole Bridge and other scenic spots can be seen, let people linger.
6. Longevity Mountain
Highlights: One of the Summer Palace’s signature attractions is an artificial mountain. Visitors can climb to the top of the Buddha Pavilion and enjoy a panoramic view. The natural scenery and cultural landscape of Wanshou Mountain complement each other, which is an important part of the Summer Palace.
Features: There are many ancient buildings and natural landscapes on the mountain, such as cloud expulsion Hall and Wisdom Sea.
7. Wenchang Academy
Highlights: The cultural Relics Exhibition Hall of the Summer Palace, with a number of special exhibition halls, has a rich collection of calligraphy and painting, furniture, bronze, gold and silver and other cultural relics.
Cultural significance: It displays the treasures of ancient Chinese culture and is an important window to understand ancient Chinese art and culture.
8. West Embankment
Highlights: A long water embankment modeled after the Su Causeway in Hangzhou’s West Lake, dotted with six bridge pavilions. In spring, the peach blossoms bloom and turn into a pink dream world.
Features: The picturesque West Causeway is one of the attractions not to be missed in the Summer Palace.
9. Tobo Glass Tower
Highlight: The glass tower built by Emperor Qianlong to celebrate his mother’s 60th birthday is 16 meters high with 8 sides and 7 levels. The whole tower is made of glass bricks. On the top is a brass bell, which makes a pleasant sound when the wind blows.
Cultural significance: This tower is of fine workmanship and is one of the important scenic spots in the Summer Palace.
10. Garden of Virtue
Highlights: One of the three major opera houses in the Qing Dynasty, the building is exquisite, and it is the place where the Empress Dowager Cixi watched the opera.
Features: The big theatre is 21 meters high, divided into three layers, the lower ceiling center has a patio and the upper stage in collusion, the middle stage is equipped with a winch, and the organ scenery is conveniently set up, and the changes are endless.
