A complete guide to traveling to Beijing with kids for 8 days and 7 nights, and a detailed guide to the Summer Palace on Day 3

Day3: Summer Palace + Sanlitun + Shimao Tianjie

On this day, our original plan was to visit the two imperial gardens, the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace. As a result, the ideal was very full, and the reality was very skinny. After visiting the Summer Palace for more than 4 hours, we no longer had the energy or energy to go to the adjacent Old Summer Palace. Instead, I sat in the KFC next to the subway station at the Summer Palace (Beigongmen Station) to have some cold drinks and something to eat. I was really hot and tired.

After returning home, we took the subway back, but felt that it was still a little early to go back. Sanlitun and Shimao Tianjie were not too far from where we lived, so we stopped by Sanlitun and Shimao Tianjie to have a stroll and have dinner. This is our itinerary for the third day of our trip to Beijing.

Closer to home, this article mainly introduces the detailed guide for visiting the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace , an ancient royal garden, formerly known as Qingyi Garden, is located in the western suburbs of Beijing, 15 kilometers away from the city, covering an area of ​​about 290 hectares. It is based on Kunming Lake and Wanshou Mountain, and is modeled on the West Lake in Hangzhou. A large-scale landscape garden built with the design techniques of Jiangnan gardens, it is also the most complete preserved royal palace garden and is known as the "Royal Garden Museum".

When I traveled to Beijing more than ten years ago, I visited the Summer Palace. This time I revisited an old place. I felt that compared to more than ten years ago, the Summer Palace had basically changed little.

Transportation : The Summer Palace has 6 entrances and exits: North Ruyi Gate, North Palace Gate, East Palace Gate, Xinjian Palace Gate, South Ruyi Gate, and the West Gate of the Summer Palace. We saw that it was very convenient to take Metro Line 4 directly to Beigongmen Station, so we entered the park through Beigongmen.

The route is as follows : Enter the Beigong Gate - Suzhou Street Bridge - Zhongyu Road - Suyun Yanchengguan, take a boat here - disembark at the Seventeen Kong Bridge Pier - Seventeen Kong Bridge - Nanhu Island - Seventeen-hole Bridge - Tongniu - East Causeway - Wenchang Pavilion - Renshou Hall - Dehe Garden - Yulan Hall - Yiyun Hall - Leshou Hall ——Promenade——Paiyun Hall——Foxiang Pavilion——Tsinghua Pavilion——Qing Yan Fang (Shi Fang)——Geng Zhi Tu Scenic Area——North Ruyi Gate.

Photos below: Enter from Beigong Gate, walk to the circled Suyunyan Chengguan and take a boat tour on the lake, which is Line 1, and go directly to the Seventeen-hole Bridge Pier, and then stroll along the road from the Seventeen-hole Bridge, which is Line 2. Leave from North Ruyi Gate.

In fact, it can be seen that we have not visited the entire Summer Palace, but we have spent more than 4 hours visiting these.

Ticket : 30 yuan/person.

As soon as you enter from the Beigong Gate, you can see a stone tablet telling that the predecessor of the Summer Palace was the Qingyi Garden built in the 29th year of Qianlong (1764). In 1860, the Qingyi Garden was destroyed by fire by the British and French forces. From 1884 to 1895, when the Empress Dowager Cixi retired for recuperation, she ordered the reconstruction of Qingyi Garden in the name of Emperor Guangxu. Due to limited funds, they concentrated their financial resources on repairing the Qianshan buildings, and built walls around Kunming Lake, renaming it the Summer Palace. In 1900, the buildings and cultural relics in the park were destroyed by the Eight-Power Allied Forces and restored in 1902. Although the Summer Palace has generally restored the landscape of Qingyi Garden, the quality has still declined.

Suzhou Street

After entering Beigong Gate, you will find Suzhou Street. Although it looks like there are many shops, none of them seems to be in operation.

Further forward, the Xumi Lingjing ruins area directly opposite is currently under repair.

Remains of burned-out buildings were also seen along the way.

We walked all the way to Suyunyanchengguan, where we took a boat to Shiqikongqiao Pier. If I remember correctly, the fare was 40 yuan per person.

When taking a boat, it feels like traveling on a cruise on the West Lake in Hangzhou. The scenery around the lake is really similar to that around the West Lake.

The boat landed at the Seventeen-hole Bridge Pier. After we landed, we first visited the Seventeen-hole Bridge and then came to an island in the middle of the lake - Nanhu Island.

The Seventeen-Arch Bridge was built in the 15th year of Qianlong's reign (1750). It connects the East Embankment to the east and Nanhu Island to the west. It is more than 150 meters long and is the longest existing bridge in the royal gardens of my country. There are more than 500 stone lions, and there are 4 stone beasts at both ends of the bridge railing. They are powerful and majestic and are masterpieces of stone carving art in the Qing Dynasty.

After exploring all the sights, we finally discovered that the two little ones’ favorite attraction was the Seventeen-Arch Bridge! I spent the most time here. The stone lions on the Seventeen-hole Bridge have different shapes and are cute and naive. The two little ones carefully observed each stone lion, looking for different places and their favorite stone. Lions, take various photos with them.

After walking through the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, we arrived at Nanhu Island, which corresponds to Wanshou Mountain. There are existing scenic spots such as Hanxu Hall, Guangrun Lingyu Temple, Jianyuan Hall, and Yuebo Tower on the island.

The distant Wanshou Mountain

After visiting this small island in the middle of the lake, you cross the Seventeen-hole Bridge to the East Embankment, and what comes into view is the Kuoru Pavilion. This pavilion is the largest pavilion-style building among ancient Chinese buildings, covering an area of ​​more than 130 square meters. rice.

Not far from Kuuru Pavilion is the Bronze Bull. On the back of this bronze bull is an eight-cross seal inscription written by Qianlong - "Golden Ox Inscription".

While strolling around the lake, do you think the scenery in front of you feels like the West Lake in Hangzhou?

Walk along the East Embankment and you will arrive at Wenchang Pavilion. This is the largest of the six gate buildings in the Summer Palace. It was built in the 15th year of Qianlong's reign. It was burned down by the British and French forces in 1860 and rebuilt during the Guangxu period. Wenchang Pavilion and Suyun eaves symbolize "civil and military assistants".

Continuing forward, you will see the Zhichunting Pavilion. This is the best viewing point to enjoy the Wanshou Mountain, the panoramic view of Kunming Lake, Yuquan Mountain and the West Mountain.

After passing Zhichunting, you will find this building complex further forward. Yulantang Hall, Yiyun Hall, Leshou Hall, Renshou Hall, Dehe Garden, etc. This place is full of stories. For example: Renshou Hall is where the emperor manages his affairs; Yulan Hall, It was once the place where Empress Dowager Cixi imprisoned Emperor Guangxu; Yiyun Pavilion was the residence of Empress Guangxu in the garden; Leshou Hall was where Empress Dowager Cixi lived, etc.

In front of Leshou Hall is the pier where Empress Dowager Cixi sailed - Shuimu Ziqin Pier.

After visiting this building complex, we came to the promenade! This is also a very classic attraction. I visited the Summer Palace more than 10 years ago, and now I recall that the two places that impressed me most were the promenade and the seventeen-hole bridge.

The corridor starts from Yaoyue Gate in the east and ends at Shizhang Pavilion in the west, with a total of 273 rooms and a total length of 728 meters. There are more than 14,000 colorful paintings of figures, landscapes, flowers and birds on the beams, making it the longest among Chinese classical gardens. Verandah. In the middle of the corridor, there are four pavilions with octagonal double eaves, namely Liujia, Jilan, Qiushui and Qingyao. They are close to the mountains and rivers, with the Paiyun Hall as the center. They spread out symmetrically to the east and west, connecting the buildings distributed in front of Wanshou Mountain. Become one.

The two little ones also had a lot of fun in the corridor. At first they looked at the paintings above their heads, but after looking at them for a while, they let themselves go and ran up and down the corridor.

In the middle of the corridor, there are Paiyun Hall and Foxiang Pavilion Scenic Area. This scenic area requires additional tickets. The two little ones were not very interested in this area. When they saw that they were going to climb up again, they felt too tired and didn't want to go up. I have been there before, but this time since they were tired and didn’t want to go, we continued walking along the corridor and headed towards the North Ruyi Gate.

Passing by Tsinghua Xuan.

Walking to the west end of the corridor, there is a stone boat standing by the lake - Qingyan Boat. The boat is made of huge stone carvings, which means "Sea Qing River Yan". It is the only Western-style boat in the Summer Palace. style architecture. There are two floors of ships built on the hull, with stained glass windows and brick carvings on the top.

Continue slowly towards the north direction of Ruyi Gate and exit the Summer Palace.

I once visited a 1:1 replica of the Old Summer Palace in Hengdian. The travel notes I wrote at that time mentioned the differences between northern gardens and southern gardens that I felt. This time I visited the Summer Palace, and this feeling was even more profound.

First of all, the most intuitive feeling is that the royal garden is really big! It covers a really wide area! It is magnificent and huge in scale. Jiangnan gardens, like the Suzhou gardens and Yangzhou gardens I have been to, do not cover such a large area and are generally relatively small.

Secondly, the architectural style is different. The architecture of the royal garden is relatively thick and rigorous, showing its style and magnificence. As for Jiangnan gardens, the architectural style is mostly exquisite, slender, smart and beautiful, with small bridges, flowing water, and winding paths.

Thirdly, the use of color is also very different. The royal gardens have red walls and blue tiles, with bright colors and high saturation. For example, this corridor has very bright colors. Gardens in the south of the Yangtze River mostly have white walls and black tiles, emphasizing tranquility, indifference, elegance and nature.

Finally, in terms of spatial layout, royal gardens are relatively closed, and the boundaries between internal and external space are very clear. For example, once the door of a courtyard is closed, you cannot see what is inside, and the boundaries are strict. Jiangnan gardens, on the other hand, are relatively transparent, with internal and external spaces connected and permeable, just like a flower window or a corridor, which will enrich the internal and external levels.

Although there will be some differences, at the same time the royal garden incorporates many beautiful scenery of the south of the Yangtze River.

When I visit the Summer Palace, in addition to admiring the scenery inside the Summer Palace, I always have the feeling in my heart that "in the old days, the swallows in front of Wang Xie's hall flew into the homes of ordinary people." I think about where this place used to be and where ordinary people could enter if they wanted to. What about? Now, if you buy a ticket, you can leisurely stroll around, cruise, enjoy the scenery, and take photos~

Suddenly I felt, well, it is a journey worth cherishing!

postscript:

Because Sanlitun is very famous, I have always been curious about it. On the way back from the Summer Palace, I stopped by Sanlitun. Because it was afternoon, I couldn’t see anything in the bar street. I felt that Sanlitun was just a lively business district.

Later, we went to Shimao Sky Level. It was not dark yet, so the sky above our heads was not opened. After dinner there, it was still bright when we came out, so I forgot about it and didn’t want to wait intentionally.