2025 Spring Self-Drive Tour to Beijing Summer Palace

🌷Summer Palace, an ancient imperial garden in Beijing 🌿Originally known as the Garden of Clear Ripples, it is located in the western suburbs of Beijing, 15 km from the city center, covering an area of about 290 hectares, and is adjacent to the Old Summer Palace. 🍁It is a large landscape garden built on the basis of Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, modeled on the West Lake in Hangzhou, and drawing on the design techniques of Jiangnan gardens. It is also the best-preserved imperial palace garden, known as the "Imperial Garden Museum." 🐯Before the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty ascended the throne, four large imperial gardens were built in the western suburbs of Beijing. In the 15th year of Qianlong's reign (1750), the Qianlong Emperor spent 4.48 million taels of silver to rebuild the Garden of Clear Ripples here to honor his mother, Empress Dowager Chongqing, forming a 20 km long imperial garden area from the present-day Tsinghua Garden to Xiangshan. 🐱In the 10th year of Xianfeng's reign (1860), the Garden of Clear Ripples was burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces. It was rebuilt in the 14th year of Guangxu's reign (1888) and renamed the Summer Palace as a summer resort. 🐻In the 26th year of Guangxu's reign (1900), the Summer Palace was again damaged by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and its treasures were looted. 🙈After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Summer Palace was damaged again during the warlord wars and the Kuomintang rule. ⏰The entire scenic area takes about 3–6 hours.