introduce
The Summer Resort was first built in 1703. After the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties of the Qing Dynasty, it took 89 years to complete. It was the meeting place for the Qing government, foreign envoys and frontier ethnic minorities. It was also the second political center of the Qing Dynasty besides Beijing. It embodies the "soft" side of the Qing government's foreign policy. Foreign envoys can communicate with the Qing government without having to travel long distances to Beijing, turning complex political goals into harmony in a quiet garden.
The mountain resort is divided into four areas, the south is the palace area and the lake area, and the north is the mountain and plain area, among which the palace area and the lake area are the essence of the summer resort.
Palace area:
As soon as you enter the main entrance of the Summer Resort (located on Lizhengmen Street), you can see the palace area, so the palace area is usually visited first.
Because the Summer Resort is the place where the Qing government met with foreign countries, the villa was built with the etiquette of receiving foreign guests, so the specifications are extremely high, which is equivalent to the specifications of the Forbidden City. The overall layout looks simple and generous, but the building materials are also very expensive. The main hall, Danbo Jingcheng Hall, is all made of Nanmu. The standard "low-key luxury" can be described as "exhaustive" in design.
Entering from the door with the plaque of "Modern Resort Museum", the tour of the palace area begins. I have seen the Yueshe Gate with the four-character plaque of "Modern Resort" in Kangxi's imperial pen, the main hall Danbo Jingcheng Hall, the death of Jiaqing, The Yanbo Zhishuang Hall of the two emperors of Xianfeng, etc., can be visited in the palace area in about 2 hours at most. Go out from the back door, go down a slope, and you will arrive at the boarding point of the mountain bike for sightseeing in the mountains.
mountainous area:
If you have enough time, after visiting the palace area, you can take a mountain bike to visit the mountains. If time is limited, you can give up the mountains and go straight to the lake area.
The mountainous area accounts for four-fifths of the area of the summer resort. Rich families built gardens and a few small rockeries to decorate it. It is unheard of to really enclose the vast mountains. The deep meaning of Kangxi when he built the summer resort was probably Tell future generations not to forget that our nation comes from far away mountains, and also not forget the foreign races outside the mountains who are eyeing our own territory covetously.
Taking the car around the mountain will pass many scenic spots, but they can only be seen on the car. The only three stops that will let tourists down to visit are "Simian Yunshan", "Erma Road", and "Qingfeng Green Island". The most interesting of the three stations is the "Erma Road". Standing on the wall of the Summer Resort, you can see the Putuo Zongcheng Temple (commonly known as the "Small Potala Palace") and Puning Temple, the golden dome of the Little Potala Palace glistens in the sun, which is particularly conspicuous. The mountain bus arrives at "Fangyuanju", which is the terminal. Fangyuanju is on the west bank of Ruyi Lake. After getting off the bus, you can directly visit the lake area.
Lake District:
The reason why there are pavilions on the lake like the Summer Resort in the north is that the two emperors Kangxi and Qianlong loved the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River. Although the lake area imitates the characteristics of the combination of architecture and water in the south of the Yangtze River, it is more flowing than the small bridges in the south of the Yangtze River. Much more atmospheric. The villa has a total of "72 scenes of Kangxi and Qianlong" - 36 scenes of Kangxi inscriptions and 36 scenes of Qianlong inscriptions. It is actually impossible to collect all 72 scenes. Some scenes are very small, and you will miss them if you don’t pay attention. 31 of the 72 scenes are in the lake area, and visiting the lake area is equivalent to a "condensed version" of the 72 sceneries. Among them, the Yanyu Tower is a must-see. It was built in imitation of the Yanyu Tower in Nanhu, Jiaxing. It is one of the filming locations of the TV series "My Fair Princess". In the lake area, you can also take a pedal boat and go boating on the lake. The reference price is 50 yuan/hour.
Plains:
It is located between the mountainous area and the lake area, just walk north from the lake area to the east of the villa. The west of the plain area is the grassland, which is dominated by the horse-testing platform where the emperor held horse racing activities; the east is the woodland, called Wanshu Garden, and there are 28 yurts of different specifications in the garden. In the plain area, there are also buildings such as Wenjin Pavilion, the royal library that once collected the "Siku Quanshu", Yongyou Temple, Chunhaoxuan, and Suyunyan.
If you are particularly interested in the history of the Qing Dynasty and have a little research, the many inscriptions in the villa are worth pondering. The builders of the Summer Resort would not have imagined that this place would become a tourist attraction in a hundred years. Of course there are some words on the stele, but more of them are personal words for their family members. For example, Qianlong wrote six poems successively on the same stone tablet in Nei Songyun Gorge to express his desire to be a wild crane after he became famous. His son Jiaqing could only silently express on the side tablet after reading it: My father's poems are really profound, and I feel a lot of pressure (looking forward to the title and revealing the essence, and keeping the position is heavy on the responsibility)!
There are Putuo Zongcheng Temple (commonly known as "Little Potala Palace"), Puning Temple, and Panchuifeng Scenic Area around the Summer Resort, which can be visited together.
There is no place to eat in the villa. It is recommended that tourists who take a long time to visit and like to watch slowly prepare some dry food by themselves. However, there are many specialty restaurants outside the villa. After leaving the villa, you can try Chengde’s special dishes, such as mutton soup, baked cakes, flowers and rose cakes, Nansha cakes, and Yutu lotus leaf chicken.
opening hours
April 1st-April 30th 07:30-17:30 (stop ticket sales at 16:30, last admission 16:30); May 1st-October 9th 07:00-18:00 (stop Ticket sales 17:00, last admission 17:00); October 10-March 31 next year 08:00-17:30 (ticket sales stop at 16:30, last admission 16:40); Summer Resort Dehui Gate, Wanshu Garden Gate, and Chengguan Gate (exit) are open from 6:30 to 18:00, no entry at 17:00, and the scenic spot is closed at 18:00
