The main attraction of the summer palace is the typical Chinese garden, which has been enlisted among the World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998.
This famous Chinese landmark had been constructed during the reign of the Jin Dynasty, and had since then been extended continuously. In the beginning the summer palace was known as Qingyi gardens, or the garden of Clear Ripples. It was considered to be a part of the three hills and five gardens. It could not withstand the onslaught of the Anglo-French allied forces and was destroyed by fire. It was reconstructed by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who renamed it as the Summer Palace or the Yieyuhan.
The Summer Palace has two major constituent units, the 60 meters high Longevity Hill and the Kungming Lake, which stretches across 2.9 square kilometers. The total area of the Summer Palace is about 294 hectares. he Summer Palace can be divided into four major areas of interest, namely, the Front Hill Area, the Rear-hill area, the court area and the Front Lake Area. The Buddhist Tower of Incense lies to the center of the Summer Palace. The palace contains a total of about 3000 structures, including towers, bridges, corridors and pavilions.
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