STUNNING SUMMER PALACE IN BEIJING, CHINA JOURNEY

 Directly after arriving at the Beijing South Railway station, we went to the Summer Palace first as our check in time to the hotel was at 3 pm 

The Summer Palace is a sprawling complex of lakes, gardens and beautiful buildings in the northwest of Beijing, its other name is Yiheyuan meaning the Garden of Restful Peace and was built in 1750 by Emperor Qianglong.

Leaving our luggage in the van, we got down and went through the Eastern Palace Gate which is the main and front entrance to Summer Palace 

It had a gabled roof, two side doors for royal family members and court officials, and three grand doors in the middle exclusively meant for the Emperor, Empress and Queen mother, thus directly reflecting Chinese feudal hierarchy culture

On the gate we saw a plaque inscribed personally by Emperor Guangxu with letters saying 'Yiheyuan’ 

A Danbi Stairway Stone Carvings lead to the entrance and was chiseled with two relief dragons playing with a ball. 

A couple of bronze lions crouched on white marble pedestals on either side, with male in the south and female in the north.

We were now walking into the administrative area of the emperors. 

The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity was the first architectural complex that we saw. It was built in 1750, burned down in 1860 by the Anglo-French allied forces, and was reconstructed in 1888, the name hails from famous Confucian which says -"the ruler who reigns benevolently will have a long life". I was left wondering as to whether it was applicable in the present - day situation

Amidst the hall was a throne furnished with delicate peacock-feather fans and a red sandalwood screen. The screen had nine dragons on the top, the middle part had a glass mirror engraved with 226 characters of "shou" symbolizing longevity in different ways. 

Apparently the Empress Dowager Cixi used to manage the affairs of court unseen, from behind the screen.

In the courtyard there was a beautifully sculpted bronze beast called a Kylin, it had a dragon head, lion tail, deer horn and cattle hoof.

Legend says that the Kylin guards against destruction by fire. It is one of the relics of Yuanmingyuan (the Perfection and Brightness Garden).

There were huge stalactites brought from the old Summer Palace

Five Lake Tai stones also stood in the courtyard signifying longevity. In front of the hall were two pairs of bronze statues of dragons and phoenixes used as incense burners to perfume the air on formal occasions 

Because the Empress Dowager Cixi, rather than the emperor, managed the affairs of the state, the phoenix statues, which represented the queen, were in the middle of the courtyard. The dragon statues, representing the emperor, were to the side, contrary to tradition. 

Next to the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, we saw the Hall of Jade Ripples originally built in1750, after the failure of the Reform Movement in 1898, Emperor Guangxu, who advocated reform was put under house arrest here by Empress Dowager Cixi

The interior of the hall was furnished with hundreds of precious antiques, most of which were made in the Reign of Emperor 

Constructed in a typical Chinese courtyard style, Yiyun House was located behind the Hall of Jade Ripples. This central structure was originally built in the reign of Emperor Qianlong for collecting books and was used as a residence by Empress Longyu, niece of Empress Dowager Cixi and the wife of Emperor Guangxu, she was also the last empress of the Qing Dynasty. 

In 1908, Cixi and Guangxu died of ill health and Longyu was elevated to Empress Dowager after the succession of 3-year-old Puyi to the throne 

At the end of the Revolution in 1911, she released the abdication script, ending over 200 years of Qing Empire and 2,000 years of Chinese feudalism. Two years later, Longyu died at the age of forty-six

Next we stepped up to the Hall of Joyful Longevity which was built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), as a gift for his mother's sixtieth birthday. It was originally a 2-storey building with a hall for Buddha worship upstairs and study below

It was burnt down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860 and rebuilt into a one-storey building in 1887 as the residence for Empress Dowager Cixi. Structurally, the Hall of Joyful Longevity is a typical Siheyuan (Chinese quadrangles) compound with a courtyard in the center. 

The bronze deer, bronze crane and bronze vase placed in front of the main hall symbolize peace and the magnolia, begonia and peony plants growing in the yard represent prosperity.

There we saw a huge, strange stone facing the gate. This stone was once called an unlucky stone that would bring ruins on one's family as per a legend, one Mr. Wanzhong a rich official in the Ming Dynasty was fond of collecting stones and spent all his property to move it to his residence but failed in the end when he became bankrupt. 

The stone was abandoned and Emperor Qianlong incidentally found it on one of his tours, he believed that it was a spirit stone in shape of the auspicious ganoderma fungi which can bring forth spiritual reinforcement to support the reign of Qing and installed it in front of the Hall of Joyful Longevity

It was scorching hot and we had to take the help of our water bottles, we came to the Longevity Hill which stood beside the Kunming Lake at a height of 58.59 meters. The hill had lot of traditional Chinese buildings, from the foot to the top. 

Tower of Buddhist Incense stood in the center of the hill, it was octagonal, with three floors and had a 20-meter-high stone base 

I was waiting to see the famous 728-meter-long Long Gallery or Corridor, longest corridor in Chinese classic gardens. It stretched from east to the west, between the southern foot of Longevity Hill and ran parallel to Kunming Lake. 

Running like an undulating ribbon, the gallery was a good observation platform as it commanded a broad view of the lake and the hill. 

The Long Gallery was first built in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong for his mother so that she could walk outdoors regardless of the weather 

It was destroyed in 1860 and rebuilt in 1886, it had 273 rooms which is the space between two pairs of columns supporting the roof.

It enjoys the title of ‘the colored paintings museum’ and paints were made from the raw colors of minerals.

Because of its length and abundance of colored paintings, the Long Gallery was included in the Guinness Book of Records in the early 1900s.

There were hundreds of painted stories inside the Long Gallery, the themes taken from historical figures, landscapes, flowers and birds and seen as a miniature representation of Chinese art.

One can appreciate the intricate paintings while listening to the profound stories, myths and legends as narrated by the guides

Worthy of mention is the fact that the main part of each picture followed the semicircular line of a girder, there was no set framework for the painting, images were created from artists' inspirations.

Most of the paintings are typical ‘Su-style Colored Paintings’ (a kind of Chinese classical painted decorative art on wooden buildings).

The paintings in thick and heavy colors in the Long Gallery were really striking revealing the grandeur of the Summer Palace, though time and weather definitely had taken a toll 

We then walked through the Yunhui Yuyu Archway on the bank of Kunming Lake to the Gate of Dispelling Clouds.

On each side of the gate there were bronze lions symbolizing protection and twelve stone statues of the Chinese Zodiac animals.

The other remarkable thing was the Seventeen-Arch Bridge connecting the eastern shore of Kunming Lake and Nanhu Island in the west and built during the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799). Out of the thirty bridges in the Summer Palace this is the largest one, with a length of 150 meters 

Seventeen-Arch Bridge looked like a rainbow arching over the water. There are 544 distinctive lions on the columns of the white marble parapets

On each end of the bridge is a carved bizarre beast which looks like Kylin, the auspicious animal in Chinese legends. With the biggest arch amid the bridge flanked by sixteen others, visitors can count nine arches in different sizes from the middle to each end of the bridge. Number nine was believed to be the biggest yang (anode) number, an auspicious number favored by the emperors. So, the bridge has seventeen arches

                                                                 ( picture - courtesy CGN)

The other attraction was the Marble Boat located in the northwest corner of Kunming Lake 

When suddenly viewed the boat appears as if it is just sailing from the south.

The Marble Boat was built in 1755 with a base made from huge stones. The base supported a wooden pavilion in traditional Chinese style imitating the sailing boats of Emperor Qianlong (1711 – 1799)

In 1860, the wooden pavilion was burned leaving behind only the hull of the boat 

Empress Dowager Cixi had the boat rebuilt in 1893 using a Western design. She financed by using funds embezzled from the navy. 

Inlaid with colorful glass windows and wheels and paved with colored bricks, the boat is 36 meters long, two stories and eight meters high.

Using the huge mirrors fixed on each deck, Cixi could enjoy the exquisite lake scene while having tea. The roof of the two-decked pavilion is made from brick carvings.  Four dragon heads mounted in each direction serve as drains, allowing rainwater to be channeled out of their mouths. 

With its arcing stern and bow and a hull shaped like paddle wheels, the big boat looked very much like a steamer ready for sailing. A thick layer of moss covers the outside of the boat revealing its long tenure here. 

In the Yuan Dynasty (1277-1368), the Longevity Hill was called Weng Shan (Urn Mountain) because of its urn-like appearance.

The low-lying land at the southern mountain foot accumulated water from springs of Jade Spring Mountain and formed a sizable lake, known then as Wengshan Pool

The capital city of the Ming moved from Nanjing to Beijing and many dignitaries and nobles chose to settle down in this area

 

Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) decided to build a new and truly impressive garden.

The new project was constructed on land formed by the dredging of a water channel 

The lake was enlarged and renamed by Qianlong as 'Kunming Lake’

Now it is a joy to see boats ply in the lake and in winter months the lake is frozen and people enjoy sledging on it

The summer palace we couldn’t see it fully as we were on a customized tour and to see in detail it would take us at least one full day

The breeze was blowing gently from the lake, the gardens were green and beautiful and the artistically built buildings which despite being destroyed again and again still were standing royally and were mute evidence to the splendor enjoyed by previous emperors, we experienced tranquility and peace despite the crowds while visiting the Summer Palace