Summer Palace

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Beijing - May 20, 2006
Summer Palace

The Summer Palace or Yiheyuan is a palace in Beijing, China. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers -- three quarters of which is water. In its compact 70,000 square meters of building space, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures. The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples. Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks -- during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Palace

Welcome to the Summer Palace.	One of many rock sculptures.

See any family resemblance?	Entrance to one of the palaces.

Garden area.	Kunming Lake.

Many plant covered walk ways.	Verrry interesting.

Entrance to one of the buildings.	Our faithful guide, Echo.

This reminds me of an Old West ranch entrance.	Walk way along side of the lake.

	Small waterway.

Tourists can take boat rides on Kunming Lake.	One of the palaces being rennovated.

The Marble Boat.	Water ways throughout the gardens.

Bridges spanning the water ways.	Bridges spanning the water ways.

Some of the plants of the Summer Palace.	Sara and Soo Lin taking a break.

Summer Palace. (2006, August 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:14, August 16, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Summer_Palace&oldid=68103709.

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