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Summer Palace, Beijing

The Summer Palace is the largest and best-preserved imperial garden in China. Its chinese name, YiHeYuan, translates as 'Garden of Nurtured Harmony' or 'Garden for Maintaining Health and Harmony'.

The Summer Palace is located on the western edge of Beijing, between the fourth and fifth ring roads, close to the western hills, 12km from central Beijing.

The Summer Palace was used as a summer residence by China's imperial rulers - as a retreat from the main imperial palace now known as the Palace Museum (or 'Forbidden City') - a pleasureground in the countryside, yet near to the city.

The Summer Palace is virtually a museum of traditional Chinese gardening that uses rocks, plants, pavilions, ponds, cobble paths and other garden styles to create a poetic effect between different scenes. When you stroll around the Summer Palace, you will constantly find the area changing.

This Summer Palace guide looks at its history, presents a clear map with a suggested route through the palace grounds, and looks at each place of interest in detail. This guide contains 400 superb photographs that both illustrate each location, and hint at the beauty of the gardens as a whole.

The garden can be divided into three parts, namely: administration, residence and scenery browsing area. The administration area, taking in the Halls of Benevolence and Longevity as its principal part, is the place where the Qing dynasty's dowager empress CiXi dealt with state affairs and received officials. The residence area mainly consists of the Hall of Jade Billows, the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, and the Hall of Joyful Longevity. Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill form the scenery browsing area.