---
node: spot_beijing_summer_palace
type: spot
slug: summer_palace
destination: dest_beijing
title: "Summer Palace"
lead: "The Summer Palace is the imperial garden retreat northwest of central Beijing, built around Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill. Three quarters of its 290 hectares are water, and it is the best surviving example of Chinese landscape garden design at scale."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_beijing_summer_palace.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longevity_Hill_of_the_Summer_Palace.jpg"
image_author: "xiquinhosilva"
image_license: "CC BY 2.0"
---

## Overview

The Qianlong Emperor enlarged it in the 1750s; Anglo-French troops burned it in 1860 and Empress Dowager Cixi rebuilt it in the 1880s, reportedly with navy funds. The Long Corridor runs 728 metres along the lake with painted scenes on every beam. In winter the lake freezes and the crowds thin, which is when the garden reads most clearly as a composed landscape.

## Highlights

Enter at the East Palace Gate and leave by the north; boats cross the lake in summer. The Marble Boat, Cixi's stone folly, and Suzhou Street, a recreated canal market, sit at the quiet north end. Climbing Longevity Hill to the Tower of Buddhist Incense gives the whole composition in one view.