Summer Palace

Summer Palace

Chengde Summer Palace, also called Hot River Palace is located in the north of Chengde city and is where emperors from China's ancient Qing dynasty spent their summers to escape the summer heat in Beijing.

The palace was built during early 18th century during the reign of Emperor Qianlong with an effort of more than 90 years to compete. It contains emperor's residential buildings, royal gardens and some magnificent temples.

The most two famous Qing emperors, Qinglong and Kangxi spent nearly half of the year here each year during their reins and Chengde thus became the second most important political center after Beijing.

Nowadays, the historically important Chengde not only serves as a tourist destination but also as a live museum to explore and define the history and culture of the Qing Dynasty because of its legacy that remains.

Chengde Summer Palace is the largest surviving royal garden in China, occupying an area of 564,000 square meters, even bigger than the Summer Palace in Beijing. China's ancient ambitious emperors always glued their eyes to their territory, even when they were on vacation.

This notion is embodied in the elaborate layout of the Chengde Summer Palace, which consists of several parts representing China's multi-featured landscapes e.g. the affluent rice plain terrain south of the Yangtze River and mountainous and bleak areas in Northwest China form a mini-territorial sweep of his empire.  The residential area located on the southern side houses more than 20,000 royal items, which are to be of great tourism and historical value.

Chengde Summer Palace is a fine example of China's royal gardens, which used various traditional ways to combine features of southern China and the grassland in nomadic north of China in an arrangement with more than 120 buildings.

Latest Tips on Summer Palace Chengde Summer Palace is under reconstruction. Visiting inconvenience is likely.
Page Rating: 4.75/5 based on 68 ratings.
Hi, I'm Candice Song
I updated this article on December 18, 2012
See My travel blog
Send feedback to me about this article
follow this pageChina Highlights
Planning a trip? Ask us here 800-2682918 (USA & CA)
86-773-2831999 (Int'l)
Do you want to book a tour/hotel/Wi-Fi. etc.
Your Name Your Email
Q: Marie Asked on 2012-09-16 Reply
Planning a trip to visit Shenzhen in March or June of 2013. We want to include a visit to the birth cities of my two daughters, Beihai City in Guangxi province and Nanping City in Fujian province and would like to know whether there is any tours available for either.

Hi Marie, there are available tours in Macau & Shenzhen, but not yet for Beihai & Nanping. However, we can tailor-make this tour for you. In order to quote the exact price, could you help me with the following questions?

1.How many people are there in your group?

2. How old are your daughters? We have discount for children under 12.

3.What kind of hotel would you like? 3/4/5 star? 

Thanks!

Whitney Liao Replied on 2012-09-20