Chengde Mountain Resort in Chengde (;

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

: ''Halhūn be jailara gurung''), is a large complex of imperial palaces and gardens situated in the Shuangqiao District of

Chengde Chengde, formerly known as Jehol and Rehe, is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, situated about 225 km northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, a vast imperial garden and palace formerly used by ...

in northeastern

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

province, northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

, about 225 km northeast of

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

. This resort was frequently used as a summer palace during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. Because of its vast and rich collection of Chinese

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

s and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

, the Mountain Resort in many ways is a culmination of all the variety of gardens, pagodas, temples and palaces from various regions of China. In 1994, The Mountain Resort was awarded

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

status. Chengde is one of China's four famous gardens, national relic protection unit and Class 5A Tourist Attractions in China.

Name

Chengde Mountain Resort is also sometimes called Rehe Xinggong (热河行宫) or Ligong ().

History

Built between 1703 and 1792 during the

, the Mountain Resort took 89 years to complete. It covers a total area of , almost half of Chengde's urban area. It is a vast complex of palaces and administrative and ceremonial buildings. Temples of various architectural styles and imperial gardens blend harmoniously into a landscape of lakes, pastureland and forests. The Kangxi, Qianlong and Jiaqing emperors often spent several months a year here to escape the summer heat in the capital city of

and the palace zone in the southern part of the resort was therefore designed to resemble the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrifi ...

in Beijing. It consists of two parts: a court in front, where the emperor received high officials, nobles of various minority nationalities, and foreign envoys; and bed chambers in the rear, which were the imperial family's living quarters, notably the Yanbozhishuang Hall, where the Kangxi Emperor spent a total of 12 summers while the Qianlong Emperor spent 52 summers in the hall during the course of their reign. The Jiaqing and Xianfeng emperors both died while staying at Chengde in 1820 and 1861 respectively.

Climate

Chengde Mountain Resort is located in the transition zone from warm temperate zone to cold temperate zone. It has semi - temperate, semi - arid continental monsoon climate. It has a large difference in temperature between day and night. In winter, it is cold and has little snow. It has many thundershowers in summer, basically there is no hot period. Chengde Mountain Resort is suitable for traveling in every season, but best from April to October.

Scenic spots

The Mountain Resort is most famous for the 72 scenic spots which were named by the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors. Many of the scenic spots around the resort's lake area were copied from famous landscaped gardens in southern China. For instance, the main building on the Green Lotus Island, "Tower of Mist and Rain," () is modeled upon a tower at the Nanhu Lake at Jiaxing in

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

Province. The resort's plain area also possesses characteristics of the scenery of the Mongolian

grasslands A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur nat ...

. Forested mountains and valleys are dotted with various buildings. This includes a -tall stone Chinese pagoda, one of the tallest in China, built in 1751 during the reign of the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 ...

. The pagoda is shaped with an

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, w ...

al base, while the pagoda's nine stories are decorated with colorful glazed tiles and the

steeple In architecture, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, topped by a spire and often incorporating a belfry and other components. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religi ...

is crowned with a

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

round

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

. In December 1994 the Mountain Resort was listed by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

on its list of

Events

The

2018 Women's Bandy World Championship The 2018 Women's Bandy World Championship was held in China, in the city of Chengde on 9–13 January 2018. This was the IXth Women's Bandy World Championship. While the record number of participants in previous tournaments is 7, the organisers ...

was held at a naturally frozen ice at the lake in the complex.

Gallery

File:避暑山庄小金山.jpg, A tower on the Little Golden Mountain File:Chengde Mountain Resort 3.jpg, A pond of lotuses File:Chengde Mountain Resort 11.jpg, One of the many pavilions inside the complex File:Chengde Mountain Resort 4.jpg, The Mountain Resort is dotted with lakes and gardens that imitates landscapes from around China File:Chengde Mountain Resort 2.jpg, The 70 m tall pagoda File:避暑山庄匾额.JPG, The

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to ...

inscription dragon board File:承德避署山庄格扇.JPG, An example of a grid door File:Wenjin Imperial Library.JPG, The

Wenjin Chamber The Wenjin Ge (; Manchu: ''šu dogon asari'') is a former imperial library built in 1773 by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty inside the Chengde Mountain Resort in Chengde, China. A copy of the '' Siku Quanshu'' was originally stored i ...

File:须弥福寿之庙.JPG, Bird's eye view of Xumi Fushou Temple from top of a hill in the Mountain Resort File:Zhengligate.JPG, Lizheng Gate - entrance reserved for the Qing emperors File:Yanbozhishuang hall.JPG, Yanbozhishuang Hall - The Jiaqing Emperor and Xianfeng Emperor both died in this Hall on September 2, 1820 and August 22, 1861 respectively File:Chengdemountainresortpic2.jpg, Ice on the lake where the

was played

Name

History

Climate

Scenic spots

Events

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading