Kunming Lake ( Chinese: , p ''Kūnmíng Hú'') is the central

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

on the grounds of the

Summer Palace The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarte ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Together with the Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake forms the key landscape features of the Summer Palace gardens. With an area of , Kunming Lake covers approximately three-quarters of the Summer Palace grounds. It is quite shallow, with an average depth of only .

History

Kunming Lake is a manmade lake whose predecessors were called ''Wengshan (Jar Hill) Pond'' and ''Xihu Lake''. They were reservoirs which had been used as sources of water both for the city and irrigation of fields over a period of 3,500 years.

Guo Shoujing Guo Shoujing (, 1231–1316), courtesy name Ruosi (), was a Chinese astronomer, hydraulic engineer, mathematician, and politician of the Yuan dynasty. The later Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591–1666) was so impressed with the preserved astr ...

, a famous astronomer and engineer in his time, developed it into a reservoir for the capital of the

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fif ...

in 1291. The conversion of the area into an imperial garden was commissioned by 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 ...

with the work being carried out between 1750 and 1764. In the course of creating the gardens, the lake area was extended by a workforce of almost 10,000 laborers. In the year 1990 and 1991, the Beijing Municipal Government undertook the first dredging of the lake in 240 years. A total of of sludge were removed in the work. 205 Japanese bombs dropped during the Sino-Japanese War were also found.

Garden design

Kunming Lake is designed to represent the traditional

Chinese garden The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the imperial family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate ...

ing practice of "one pond, three hills" (). Like the islands in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also Chinese postal romanization, romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the prov ...

West Lake West Lake (; ) is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. It is divided into five sections by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and natural/artificial islands within the lake. Gushan (孤山) is the largest natural ...

and 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 ...

Taiye Lake Taiye Lake or Taiye Pond was an artificial lake in imperial City, Beijing during the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties of China. The beauty and utility of the lake was responsible for the siting of Kublai Khan's palace and the position of mode ...

, they were intended to represent three islands of the immortals mentioned in the ''

Classic of Mountains and Seas The ''Classic of Mountains and Seas'', also known as ''Shan Hai Jing'', formerly romanized as the ''Shan-hai Ching'', is a Chinese classic text and a compilation of mythic geography and beasts. Early versions of the text may have existed sin ...

'': Penglai, Yingzhou, and Fangzhang. Kunming's three are named "South Lake Island" ( t , s , ''Nánhúdǎo''), "Round Fort Island" ( t , s , ''Tuánchéngdǎo''), and "

Algæ Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular micr ...

-view Hall Island" ( t , s , ''Zǎojiàntángdǎo'')The unusual name is a pun on the water and the use of in literary Chinese to mean "literary talent". The name can also therefore be understood as the "Island of the Hall for Reflection on Literary Talent". Many features of Kunming Lake are inspired by natural scenery from the region south of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

. In particular, the West Dike is a recreation of the famous Sudi Dike on

. It cuts diagonally through the southern part of the lake. Like the Sudi Dike, the West Dike is connected through six bridges, each with its own distinctive style: Jiehu, Binfeng, Yudai, Jing, Lian, and Liu. The largest bridge on Kunming Lake is the 17-Arch Bridge that connects the eastern shore with South Lake Island, representing Penglai. Close to the bridge on the eastern shore stands a bronze ox sculpture. According to

Chinese legend Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature in the geographic area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology includes many varied myths from regional and cultural traditions. Much of ...

Yu the Great Yu the Great (大禹) was a legendary king in ancient China who was famed for his introduction of flood control, his establishment of the Xia dynasty which inaugurated dynastic rule in China, and his upright moral character. He figures promine ...

used an iron ox to prevent flooding. Since the bronze ox is located on the eastern dike of Kunming Lake in the direction of the

, it was probably erected in order to protect the Forbidden City from flooding.

References

{{Lakes of China Summer Palace (Beijing) Bodies of water of Beijing Lakes of China

History

Garden design

See also

References