Located in northwestern suburbs of Beijing Proper, formerly the garden to a temporary dwelling palace of the Qing Dynasty. At first, it was constructed into the Golden in the Jin dynasty, while it was constructed into the Good in the Ming Dynasty. Reconstructed in the fifteenth year under the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1750), it was named Qingyi (Clean Ripple) Garden. In the fourteenth year under the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1888), Empress Dowager CiXi reconstructed it and renamed it into Summer. Covering a land of 2.9km, it has three fourths of its area under lake water.

There are more than 3,000 palaces, halls, temples and garden buildings of various forms and types inside the garden, which are divided into three major activity areas for political affairs attending, dwelling and touring purposes. The whole garden, with the Longevity Hill as its center, is of blue hills and green waters with loftily towering chambers and long zigzag corridors in their splendid green and golden decoration with imposing vision thanks to the clever technique, which enables it to occupy an extremely position in domestic and overseas garden artistic history. In 1998 it was included in the “World Cultural Heritage List”.