Imperial Gardens of the Qing Dynasty
(清代的御花园)
5 min read
Qing-dynasty (清朝, 1644–1912) imperial gardens—such as the Mountain Resort in Chengde (避暑山庄), Yuanmingyuan (圆明园), and Yiheyuan (颐和园, also known as the Summer Palace)—are culturally significant because they represent microcosms of the Qing Empire. They showcase Chinese aesthetic traditions while embodying the interaction of nature, human design, and geopolitics. Although each site comprises clusters of palaces and gardens, the term garden (yuan, 园) describes them more accurately than palace, as landscape design is far more central than architecture.
The Mountain Resort (避暑山庄)
Located 225 kilometers northeast of Beijing in Chengde (承德), the Mountain Resort was constructed between 1703 and 1792, beginning in the reign of the Kangxi Emperor (康熙皇帝). Designed as a masterwork of classical Chinese garden art, it mirrors China’s diverse landscapes and architectural traditions: lakes evocative of the lower Yangtze Valley, grasslands of the Mongolian steppe, forested mountains of the northeast, and palace complexes blending Manchu, Han, Tibetan, and Mongol styles.
Surrounding the resort, twelve temples were built in Tibetan and Xinjiang architectural styles. Eight of these, known collectively as the Eight Outer Temples (外八庙), survive today. The Mountain Resort and the Outer Temples (top image) were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
Beyond its aesthetic value, the resort held profound political significance as a symbolic power center of the Qing court, particularly under the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors. Although conceived as a summer retreat from Beijing’s heat, it was deliberately built outside the Great Wall and functioned as a neutral ground where Qing rulers received envoys from frontier peoples, including Mongols, Tibetans, and Uyghurs. The gardens and temples replicated landscapes and architectural styles from frontier regions, visually expressing the Qing vision of unity in diversity.
Yuanmingyuan (圆明园)
Built in stages from the early 18th century until its destruction in 1860, Yuanmingyuan was famed for its beauty and extravagance. Unlike the Forbidden City, it was not inherited from earlier dynasties but was purposefully planned, designed, and constructed as a vast complex of interlinked gardens. Often referred to as the “Summer Palace,” it was in fact the principal residence of Qing emperors for much of the year until its destruction. The two images below are artistic reconstructions of its original appearance.
During the Second Opium War in 1860, British and French troops looted and burned Yuanmingyuan in retaliation for Qing resistance. Historian James Hevia (formerly of the University of Chicago) interprets its destruction as a powerful symbol of China’s vulnerability and humiliating subjugation by foreign powers in the 19th century. The looting—resulting in the dispersal of Chinese art and artifacts into Western collections—has since become a focal point of modern Chinese nationalism.
Among the most famous losses are forty paintings of Yuanmingyuan commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor in 1744 and taken to France. Now housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, they are among the few surviving visual records of the original complex. Two of these paintings are shown below. Once a stage for imperial power, Yuanmingyuan became a ruin embodying dynastic collapse and, today, a symbol of national humiliation and resilience. Its power now lies precisely in the absence of intact structures, serving as a stark reminder of historical trauma for Chinese visitors.
Yiheyuan (颐和园)
Completed in 1764, Yiheyuan was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor to celebrate his mother’s sixtieth birthday. Until the late Qing dynasty, emperors occasionally visited the garden for its serenity and beauty. This tranquility ended in 1860, when the Anglo-French forces looted and destroyed both Yuanmingyuan and Yiheyuan. While Yuanmingyuan was never rebuilt, Yiheyuan was restored in 1888 under the Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后), becoming the imperial family’s primary residence and a center for managing state affairs.
Designed to blend the elegance of southern water towns with the grandeur of the northern plains, Yiheyuan is organized around Kunming Lake (昆明湖) and Longevity Hill (万寿山). The Tower of Buddhist Incense (佛香阁) dominates the skyline, while the 728-meter Long Corridor (长廊)—decorated with more than 14,000 painted panels depicting scenes from Chinese mythology, history, and literature—winds along the northern shore of the lake.
Cixi famously diverted 30 million taels of silver originally allocated for modernizing China’s North Sea Navy to fund Yiheyuan’s reconstruction, leaving the navy underfunded and contributing to its disastrous defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (甲午战争) of 1895. British diplomat Lord Charles Beresford described the restoration in 1898 as a “criminal waste” amid widespread poverty. Katharine Carl, an American painter who lived with Cixi, recalled in With the Empress Dowager (1905) the garden’s “overwhelming luxury,” including silk curtains, jeweled clocks, and Louis XVI–style furniture imported from Europe. Cixi’s extravagance became a national scandal and fueled anti-Qing sentiment.
Today, Yiheyuan’s opulence is often framed as a cautionary tale of corruption, while its artistic beauty is celebrated as cultural heritage. The site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998.
Legacy and Access
These three imperial gardens—renowned for their sophisticated synthesis of art, architecture, landscape, and politics—occupy distinct places in the modern Chinese national psyche. The Mountain Resort represents multiculturalism and imperial unity; Yuanmingyuan embodies national trauma inflicted by foreign powers; and Yiheyuan symbolizes imperial excess and corruption.
These gardens remain popular destinations for domestic and international travelers.
- Mountain Resort (Chengde): About one hour from Beijing by high-speed rail on the Beijing–Shenyang line.
- Yuanmingyuan (Beijing): Located near the Fifth Ring Road in northwestern Beijing, close to Peking University and Tsinghua University.
- Yiheyuan (Beijing): Approximately six kilometers from Yuanmingyuan, also near the Fifth Ring Road and accessible via Beijing’s public transit system.
Photo credit: Baidu.com