Overview
Chinese Name: 承德避暑山庄
English Name: Chengde Mountain Resort, Rehe Xinggong, Ligong, Chengde Bishu Shanzhuang
Location: Chengde City, Hebei Province
Type: Landscape architecture
Rating Level: AAAAA (5A)
Brief Introduction
Chengde Mountain Resort 承德避暑山庄, also known as the Rehe Xinggong热河行宫 or Ligong离宫，is in the northern part of Chengde City, Hebei Province. It was the emperor’s summer palace of the Qing Dynasty in China.
It is a national AAAAA level tourist attraction, a national key cultural relic protection unit, regarded as one of China’s four famous gardens, and the other three are the Summer Palace in Beijing, Humble Administrator’s Garden, and Lingering Garden in Suzhou. “Chengde Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples” was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1994.
It is a grand architectural complex that consists of numerous palaces, the largest royal garden in China, and wonderful scenery, combined with a pleasant climate.
The construction of the Mountain Resort was divided into two stages. The first stage was from the forty-second year of the reign of Kangxi Emperor (1703) to the fifty-second year of the reign of Kangxi Emperor (1713). The main job in this period was to expand the lake area, build artificial islets, build up the embankment, then construct palaces and pavilions, plant trees and walls. The mountain resort began to take shape.
The second stage started from the sixth year (1741) to the nineteenth year (1754) of the reign of Qianlong Emperor. Large-scale expansion of the resort happened during this time period. More splendor palaces and a majority of exquisite gardens were built.
Now it generally consists of two sections: a palace section and a garden section. The palace section is where Qing emperors would dispose of state affairs and live. The garden section can be further divided into a Lake Area, Mountain Area, and Plain Area.
What is worth to visit and see？
Attractions in the Resort
The characteristic of the Chinese garden is that delicate and exquisite pavilions, terraces, buildings, waterside pavilions, hills, bridges, waters, and trees are all arranged in this royal palace.
The palace falls into four groups: Central Palace正宫, Pine and Crane Studio松鹤斋, Valleys and Pines万壑松风, and East Palace东宫.
Chengde Mountain Resort is most famous for the 72 scenic spots which were named by the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors. Many of the scenic spots around the resort’s lake area were copied from famous landscaped gardens in southern China.
The mountain resort was used as a meeting place to receive foreign guests, so it was built with very high specifications. The Central Palace of Chengde Mountain Resort has been converted to a museum.
Jinshan Mountain金山 is located on the east side of Chenghu澄湖 in Chengde Mountain Resort. It features imaginative architectural design and is well-proportioned.
Attractions around the Resort
There are more than 90 towers and pavilions scattered around the Mountain Resort as well as small bridges, inscriptions on precipices, rockeries of various sizes, horizontal inscribed boards, palaces, terraces, and other buildings.
At that time, there were 32 temples in the capital. 8 temples in Chengde were outside of Beijing and the Great Wall, but they also had offices in Beijing, so they are called The Eight Outlying Temples.
The Buddhist statue in Puning Temple has thousands of hands and eyes. It is the largest and weightiest wooden Buddhist statue in the world.
Qingchui Peak 磬锤峰 scenic area is located in the east of Chengde Mountain Resort, the east bank of the Wulie River, covering an area of 40.5 million square meters and consists of the royal temple group of Pule Temple普乐寺, Anyuan Temple安远庙, and Qingchui Peak national forest park.
Generally speaking, it is suitable to visit Chengde Mountain Resort all year round and can be appreciated in different seasons.