Relief at the Summer Palace (Beijing, China)—June 9, 2014. During the reigns of the Qing Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong (1663-1795) several imperial gardens were created around Beijing, the last of them being the Summer Palace, based on the Hill of Longevity and Kunming Lake in the north-western suburbs of the city.

Kunming Lake (known earlier as Wengshan Pond and Xihu Lake) had been used as a source of water for irrigation and for supplying the city for some 3500 years. It was developed as a reservoir for Yuan Dadu, capital of the Yuan Dynasty, by Guo Shoujing, a famous scientist of the period, in 1291. Between 1750 and 1764 Emperor Qianlong created the Garden of Clear Ripples, extending the area of the lake and carrying out other improvements based on the hill and its landscape. It was to serve as the imperial garden for him and for his successors, Jiaqing, Daoguang, and Xianfeng.

During the Second Opium War (1856-60) the garden and its buildings were destroyed by the allied forces. Between 1886 and 1895 it was reconstructed by Emperor Guangxu and renamed the Summer Palace, for use by Empress Dowager Cixi. It was badly damaged in 1900 by the international expeditionary force during the suppression of the Boxer Rising, in which Cixi had played a significant role, and restored two years later.

The Summer Palace became a public park in 1924 and has continued as such to the present day.

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