Summer Palace (2024)

FAQs

How much time is needed for Summer Palace? ›

Normally it takes about 2 or3 hours to walk around Summer Palace itself. With your time on the city transportation included, you are advised to allocate at least half a day for visiting Summer Palace. Summer Palace presents itself with different views for different seasons.

The Summer Palace was devastated by invading European forces, first in 1860 and again in 1900. On both occasions the palace was rebuilt by Empress Dowager Cixi, and to many Chinese people the palace became a symbol of national and cultural resistance in the face of foreign barbarism.

(May 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. The Summer Palace (simplified Chinese: 颐和园; traditional Chinese: 頤和園; pinyin: Yíhéyuán) is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden during the Qing dynasty.

Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace)

To visit the site, visitors need to make a reservation up to 12 days in advance. It's easy to secure a spot. The tickets cost 25 RMB for a ticket or 10 RMB for a student ticket. Alternatively, if you want to avoid waiting in long lines, consider booking in advance through Klook.

A marvel of Chinese garden design and one of Beijing's must-see attractions, the Summer Palace was the royal retreat for emperors fleeing the suffocating summer torpor of the old imperial city and, most recently, it was the retirement playground of Empress Dowager Cixi.

Of all the major tourist attractions, however, the one that's unmissable, especially if you want to understand China better, is the Summer Palace. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Summer Palace in Beijing is one of the most well-preserved and popular imperial gardens in the world.

The commander of the British forces, Lord Elgin — whose father had infamously plundered the Parthenon friezes from Athens — selected the Old Summer Palace for destruction.

As news emerged that an Anglo-French delegation had been imprisoned and tortured by the Qing government, with 19 delegation members being killed, the British High Commissioner to China, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, retaliated by ordering the complete destruction of the palace on 18 October, which was then carried ...

In Chinese mythology, there were originally 10 suns, in some forms of this myth they are the sons or grandsons of the Jade Emperor. Initially, the 10 suns would cross the sky one by one, but one day the 10 suns decided to come out all at once so that they could play with each other, and scorched the earth.

What does Yi Yuan mean? ›

意愿 Trad. 意願 yì yuàn. aspiration wish (for) desire.

The Summer Palace, in Chinese Yihe Yuan, is now the largest and the most well-preserved imperial garden in China, counted as one of the four famous Chinese imperial gardens (the other three being Chengde Summer Palace, Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden, and Suzhou Lingering Garden).

Though you could easily spend a half-day at the Summer Palace, it's also possible to visit the palace, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven all in a single day. Other tour options might include the Summer Palace and Mutianyu Great Wall, or the Summer Palace and Lama Temple.

The Summer Palace in Beijing – first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the war of 1860 and restored on its original foundations in 1886 – is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

The Summer Palace occupies 3.008 square kilometers, three-fourths of which is water, mainly the Kunming Lake at the foot of Longevity Hill. Its 70,000 square meters of building space features a variety of palaces, gardens, and other ancient-style architectural structures.

Due to the highest level of protection that the Summer Palace has always received from the government, its original design, planning and landscape have been perfectly preserved. Furthermore, the Summer Palace has maintained a harmonious relationship with its setting.

No ticket needed for Children under 6. Free tickets available for seniors above 60. (Seniors should use their valid passports or ID card to get free tickets from the ticket office.) Some gardens in the Summer Palace are not open for public on Monday, so it's not recommended to buy combo tickets on Monday.

Opening time

Busy season: from April 1 to October 31; Gate: 6：00-19：00; Parks Inside the Summer Palace：8：00——17：30; Close:20：00 . Slack season: from November 1 to March 31; Gate: 6：30-18：00; Parks Inside the Summer Palace：8：30——16：30; Close:19：00.