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Chengde Summer Palace

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Chengde Summer Palace, also called Hot River Palace is located in the north of Chengde city and is where emperors from China's ancient Qing dynasty spent their summers to escape the summer heat in Beijing.

The palace was built during early 18th century during the reign of Emperor Qianlong with an effort of more than 90 years to compete. It contains emperor's residential buildings, royal gardens and some magnificent temples.

The most two famous Qing emperors, Qinglong and Kangxi spent nearly half of the year here each year during their reins and Chengde thus became the second most important political center after Beijing.

Nowadays, the historically important Chengde not only serves as a tourist destination but also as a live museum to explore and define the history and culture of the Qing Dynasty because of its legacy that remains.

Chengde Summer Palace is the largest surviving royal garden in China, occupying an area of 564,000 square meters, even bigger than the Summer Palace in Beijing. China's ancient ambitious emperors always glued their eyes to their territory, even when they were on vacation.

This notion is embodied in the elaborate layout of the Chengde Summer Palace, which consists of several parts representing China's multi-featured landscapes e.g. the affluent rice plain terrain south of the Yangtze River and mountainous and bleak areas in Northwest China form a mini-territorial sweep of his empire.  The residential area located on the southern side houses more than 20,000 royal items, which are to be of great tourism and historical value.

Chengde Summer Palace is a fine example of China's royal gardens, which used various traditional ways to combine features of southern China and the grassland in nomadic north of China in an arrangement with more than 120 buildings.

Edition HistoryAddLocation:

It is located in the north of Chengde city.

Edition HistoryAddTicket Price:

Edition HistoryEdit Opening Time:
8:00-17:30

Edition HistoryEdit How to get there:

1. Pick up No.5 bus through to the destination from Chengde railway station or the coach station.

2. Beijing-Chengde: Bus departs from Beijing every 10 minutes. The train N 211 travels from Beijing to Chengde for around 4 hours.

Edition HistoryEdit Tips:

The internal transportation: Sightseeing buses can be taken when touring around the mountainous regions. Horses are also available for tourists on the grassland.
2. Food and drink: A variety of diets that the emperors in Qing dynasty had when arriving here are all available now, including Chengde bean-starch noodles, Donkey-Rolling Roll, Rose Biscuit, Venison of the Eight Immortals in the legend and forcemeat of deer.
3. [read more]

The internal transportation: Sightseeing buses can be taken when touring around the mountainous regions. Horses are also available for tourists on the grassland.
2. Food and drink: A variety of diets that the emperors in Qing dynasty had when arriving here are all available now, including Chengde bean-starch noodles, Donkey-Rolling Roll, Rose Biscuit, Venison of the Eight Immortals in the legend and forcemeat of deer.
3. Purchase: Many souvenir shops for tourists in and out of the resort sell Jade articles, tree-root carving (a handicraft), craftwork of skins and husks, fabric paste of Teng family etc..
4. Accomodation: There are many hotels and vacational villages in the Summer Resort providing accomodation services for tourists.