Summer Palace

Summer Palace is an imperial garden in Qing Dynasty. Ordered by the Empress Dowager Cixi, the reconstruction of the garden was started in 1888 and completed in 1895. It covers a total area of 290 hectares with 3,000 palaces, galleries and pavilions. The design gives prominence to the greenery Longevity Hill and the clear Kunming Lake. Looking from the Longevity Hill, you will have a bird's-eye-view of the picturesque Kunming Lake with the Seventeen-Arch Bridge and the South Lake Islet floating on it.

The Long Corridor is among many other beautiful sights in the garden. Skirting the northern bank of the Kunming Lake, the Long Corridor is decorated 

with more than 8,000 paintings of landscapes, flowers and human figures.

Ming Tombs consist of thirteen tombs of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). Construction started in 1409 and ended with the fall of Ming Dynasty in 1644. In over 200 years tombs were built over an area of 40 square kilometers. Each tomb is located at the foot of a separate hill and is linked with the other tombs by a road called the Sacred Way. The Sacred Way is lined with 18 pairs of stone human figures and animals, which symbolize royal power and eternal strength. Dingling Tomb is the only one that has been excavated. It is the tomb of Emperor Shenzong, the 13th emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his empresses. The tomb was completed in 1590, but was not excavated until the 1950s. The underground palace consists of an antechamber, a central chamber and a rear chamber. The royal coffins are placed in the rear chamber.