LegendThe hammer rock
The strange club-shaped rock on the hill east of the resort, Qingchui Peak, is said to be the hammer of a god, left behind after he used it to drive back a flood.
Source: A Chengde folk story
The story
The Manchus who ruled China came from the north, and every autumn the Kangxi Emperor led his court beyond the Great Wall to hunt at Mulan, a training for war and a way of binding the Mongol princes to the throne. Rehe, the "hot river", lay on the way, and in 1703 he began a palace there. Qianlong, who loved the place, added to it until 1792.
The resort is a map of the empire in small: lakes and islands copied from Jiangnan, a grassy plain like the Mongolian steppe, and hills to the north-west like the mountains of the north. Around it, outside the wall, rose the Eight Outer Temples, some in Tibetan style. Together they became a World Heritage Site in 1994.
What is here
The resort ticket includes the museum in the palace. A combined ticket also covers three of the Eight Outer Temples and Qingchui Peak.
| Part | Ticket |
|---|---|
| Mountain Resort | 130 yuan (April–October), 90 yuan (November–March) |
| Combined ticket: resort, Putuo Zongcheng (Little Potala), Puning Temple, Qingchui Peak | 260 yuan, valid 4 days |
| Hill bus, lake boat and plain cart | 150 yuan together |
If you have one minute
In the Hall of Frugality and Sincerity
The main hall of the palace is built of nanmu, a fragrant hardwood, left unpainted: plain grey roofs and brown timber, not the red and gold of the Forbidden City. The emperors wanted their summer palace to look modest, a retreat among pines. Here they gave audiences and held ceremonies.
Then walk down to the lakes, where a dozen pavilions, bridges and islands copy famous views of the south, and on to the Garden of Ten Thousand Trees, where in 1793 Lord Macartney knelt on one knee before the Qianlong Emperor in a great yurt.
Things people often get wrong
"It is like the Summer Palace in Beijing." It is several times bigger, mostly wild hills and woods, and the buildings are plainer. It is the largest imperial garden in China.
"The Eight Outer Temples are inside." They stand outside the wall, on the hills to the east and north, with separate tickets.
People who stood here
We searched Chinese sources first for this list, then English and Italian ones.
- The Kangxi Emperor (1654–1722)He founded the resort in 1703, named thirty-six of its views and wrote a poem for each.
- Matteo Ripa (missionary and engraver, 1682–1746)The Italian priest made copper engravings of Kangxi's thirty-six views, the first European prints of a Chinese garden.
- The Qianlong Emperor (1711–1799)He spent most summers here, added thirty-six more views and received envoys from across Asia and Europe.
- George Macartney (diplomat, 1737–1806)The first British ambassador to China was received here on 14 September 1793; his requests for trade were refused.
- The Xianfeng Emperor (1831–1861)He fled here when British and French troops took Beijing in 1860, and died in the Hall of Refreshing Mists and Waves the next year.
- Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908)After Xianfeng's death here she plotted the coup of 1861 that made her the real ruler of China for nearly fifty years.
Go deeper: from the palace to the plain and the library, six stops7 stops · about 1 min to read
The resort covers 5.64 square kilometres; walking it all takes four hours or more. A combined ticket of 150 yuan covers the hill bus, the lake boat and the plain cart.
1. The Lizheng Gate and the palace
The main gate bears its name in five scripts: Chinese, Manchu, Mongol, Tibetan and Uyghur. Behind it, courtyards of grey-roofed halls among old pines.
2. The Hall of Refreshing Mists and Waves
The emperor's private apartments, where Xianfeng died in 1861; the room is kept with its furniture.
3. The lakes and Ruyi Island
Causeways, bridges and islands; look for the Misty Rain Tower, copied from a tower in Jiaxing, and for the Water-Heart Pavilions over a sluice.
4. The Rehe spring
The warm spring that gave the river and the city their old name, Rehe or Jehol; its water keeps a corner of the lake from freezing in winter.
5. The Garden of Ten Thousand Trees
An open plain where yurts were pitched for banquets with Mongol princes and foreign envoys. The court painters recorded such a feast in 1755.
6. The Wenjin Library and the pagoda
The Wenjin Ge, built in 1774, held one of seven copies of the vast "Complete Library of the Four Treasuries"; that copy is now in the National Library in Beijing. Nearby, the nine-storey pagoda of Yongyou Temple rises over the plain.
The resort and the same years elsewhere
In 1703, the year Kangxi began the resort, Peter the Great founded St Petersburg on the marshes of the Neva.