Summer Palace

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Summer Palace

UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Summer Palace in Beijing
Location	Haidian District, Beijing, China
Criteria	Cultural: i, ii, iii
Reference	880
Inscription	1998 (22nd Session)
Area	297 ha
Buffer zone	5,545 ha
Coordinates	39°59′51.00″N 116°16′8.04″E / 39.9975000°N 116.2689000°E / 39.9975000; 116.2689000
Location of the Summer Palace Show map of Beijing Summer Palace (Beijing) Show map of Beijing

Summer Palace
"Summer Palace" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese	颐和园
Traditional Chinese	頤和園
Literal meaning	Garden of Preserving Harmony
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yíhéyuán Wade–Giles I2-ho2-yüan2 IPA [ǐ.xɤ̌.ɥɛ̌n] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Yìh-wòh-yùhn

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. Inside includes Longevity Hill (万寿山; 萬壽山; Wànshòu Shān) Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres (1.1 sq mi), three-quarters of which is water.

Longevity Hill is about 60 metres (200 ft) high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is the site of splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 square kilometres (540 acres), was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill.

The Summer Palace, which is inspired by the gardens of South China, contains over 3,000 Chinese ancient buildings that house a collection of over 40,000 valuable historical relics from various dynasties.

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value".

Notably in Chinese history, it is also the Central Route terminus of the South-North Water Transfer Project having traversed 1,267 km (787 mi) from Danjiangkou Reservoir, Hubei, making it Beijing's main water supply.