Summer Palaces, New and Old

 

The New Summer Palace

April 4, 2026

The New Summer Palace was the luxurious summer retreat for the Qing Emperors. It was also Empress Dowager Cixi's home away from her Forbidden City home. 

Notice the bats on the Summer Palace windows. In Chinese, the word for bat is a homophone for the word for fortune or blessing. So, bats are a recuring motif in the architecture of the palace.

The Long Corridor was built to allow the Empress Dowager to enjoy strolling in the garden in rain or sunshine. It has over 14,000 paintings depicting scenes from classical literature, historical figures and birds and flowers.

This one portrays a scene from Journey to the West, but it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Our guide said it was done by "crazy teenagers."

Fortunately, many of the paintings survived.

The first Marble Boat was built by Emperor Qianlong. It was destroyed by Lord Elgin during the Second Opium War. The Empress Dowager rebuilt it ironically using money that was earmarked for the navy. Although both boats were described as marble, they were both made of stone painted to look like marble and neither boat could float!

There were plenty of boats that could float on the man-made lake. The first time we came, we took a boat ride. This time, we enjoyed the flowering trees.

This map depicts the Old Summer Palace or Yuangmingyuan. We have not been to this historical site and thought it was just a collection of ruins. We were surprised to find the 350 square hectare park filled with local tourists. We learned it is an important national symbol for China. It represents the peak of Qing Dynasty architecture contrasted with the peak of the Century of Humiliation China endured. 

The Old Summer Palace was a collection of Western-style Baroque buildings and traditional Chinese style architecture. It was known as the "Garden of Gardens." The buildings held the greatest collection of China's 5,000 years of treasures ever concentrated in one location. During the Second Opium War, it was burned and looted by an Anglo-French Army. Victor Hugo famously wrote, "one day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned." His was a rare voice of conscience for the time.

For a long time, the remnants of the buildings were removed by locals who repurposed them for their own needs. The CCP, has preserved the Palace Grounds as an important patriotic education site. 

There were plenty of visitors taking in the historical education! Karl assigned his students to talk with two local visitors to find out why they were there and what they learned from their visit.

These statues are not the originals. The originals were looted, five of which are still not located while the others are in various places around the world. The statues are Chinese zodiac heads on human bodies, and they formed a "hydraulic clock." Each hour the corresponding head would spout water to tell the time. They are one example of many looted objects around the world. Of the estimated 1.6 million Chinese artifacts now located in 47 museums outside of China, roughly one million of them came from the Yuanmingyuan. Should they be returned to their original owners or allowed to remain where they are now?

This wall is the remains of a mosque Emperor Qianlong built for his favorite Uyghur concubine, Xiang Fei in hopes of easing her homesickness.

This Wanhua Maze was commissioned by Emperor Qianlong and designed and built by Jesuit missionaries in 1749. The Emperor and his concubines enjoyed the maze. Eunuch's would hold lanterns and it was a popular Mid-Autumn festival tradition. It too was destroyed but rebuilt in the 1980s.

Finally, we got to go to the US Embassy and receive a briefing from one of Karl's former students and former Pacrimmer!