The Summer Palace,Garden of Harmonious Unity,lies in a northwestern suburb of Beijing. This is one of the largest and best preserved Imperial Chinese gardens;it is an outstanding example of classical Chinese garden landscaping.Man-made Kunming Lake,Longevity Hill,the man -made hills as well as halls,pavilions and temples blend harmoniouslyinspite of their individual styles.
The emperor of the Jin Dynasty laid the foundation stone in 1153 and he had Garden of the Golden Water laid out.During the coming eras, the garden and lake were again enlarged and deepened. Under the Qianlong Emperor,Large-scale work was done,and the park was made its present size of 290 hectares.Three-fourths of it are taken up by Kunming Lake. Since the Qianlong period ,the garden has been called Garden of Clear Ripples.As the imperial family spent most of the hot summer months here, the palace was soon called the Summer Palace.