The Garden of Perfect Splendor:

    At its full grandeur, the Garden of Perfect Splendor was known in the West as the "garden of all gardens" before it was set ablaze by an allied force of British and French troops in the mid-1900s.

    The Garden of Pleasant Spring was the first imperial garden built under Emperor Kang Xi in Beijing's northwest suburbs. To be more precise, it was the first imperial abode built there. As such, it is divided into two parts. The frontal part consisted of palace buildings for work and dwelling of his majesty, and the part in the rear is a lakeside garden.

    The Garden of Perfect Splendor was built in 1708, also on order of Emperor Kang Xi, which he gave to Prince Yong, his fourth son, whom he had discreetly designated as his successor. Prince Yong was enthroned as the new emperor, Emperor Yong Zheng, after his father's death. During his reign, he ordered construction of more palaces in the garden to expand it into one more imperial abode on the northwest suburb of the capital.

    Expansion of the Garden of Perfect Splendor continued under the next emperor, Emperor Qian Long, under whose rule China underwent one more period of peace and prosperity. The emperor, who took pride in what historians refer to as the "Qian Long's era of national boom", was a man of literary attainment and he was, in particular, fond of gardening. In his lifetime, he went on six inspection tours of China's richest areas in the south, in the course of which he was able to visit numerous scenic spots and private gardens. The visits inspired him to order expansion of the Garden of Perfect Splendor by having the Garden of Pleasant Spring and the Garden of Eternal Spring incorporated into it.

    The project took 30 long years to complete. Lakes and ponds dotted an area of 350 hectares occupied by the expanded Garden of Perfect Splendor, which is also known as the "Three Gardens of Perfect Splendor". The largest is the Sea of Happiness, which is 600 meters wide. The lake, also the largest scenic spot in the garden, featured an islet that symbolizes the Immortals' Island on the high seas. There were also lakes or ponds two or three hundred meters wide. Most of the water bodies, however, were even smaller, forming scenic spots together with palace courtyards or man-made hills in their front or behind.

    A web of streams linked the lakes and ponds, making the various scenic spots parts of an integral whole while independent of one another. Lakes, ponds and streams accounted for half of the area, and hills, for about one fifth. Built with earth from digging of lakes and ponds, none of the

hills were high enough to spoil the scenery characterized by ripples dancing in lakes on a vast expanse of flatland. Instead, they were indispensable parts of each and every scenic spot by adding beauty to the Garden of Perfect Splendor as a whole.

    The Garden of Perfect Splendor comprises numerous smaller gardens scattering all over the place, in lakes and ponds or right at their side. It is smaller in area than the Garden of Clear Ripples on Beijing's northwest suburb and the Beihai Lake in the city center. Moreover, it does not have a landmark building or commanding scenic spot like the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion atop the Hill of Longevity in the Garden of Clear Ripples and the White Pagoda on the Jade Islet in the Beihai Lake.

    The scenic beauty, however, is unique in that even though scattering, the different scenic spots form a united whole. On order of Emperor Qian Long, imitations of famous scenic spots in south China were built in the garden -- for example, the "Three Moons Reflected in Water" and the "Autumn Moon in the Lake" in the West Lake scenic area of Hangzhou. Believe it or not, there was even a "shopping street" named after the scenic city Suzhou to which the emperor took a special liking. On festival occasions, Emperor Qian Long and the emperors after him would, accompanied by court ministers and taking with them their wives and concubines, visit the Suzhou Street and "buy" from eunuchs and court ladies who disguised themselves as traders.

    Altogether, buildings in 120 clusters were counted in the garden before it was destroyed in the Second Opium War. With a combined construction space of 160,000 square meters, these were all scenic spots of surpassing beauty. Included were the Hall of Honesty and Brightness where the emperor granted audiences to court ministers, the Jade Pavilion built as a symbol of the immortals' dwelling place, and Palace of Blessings where imperial ancestral tablets were worshipped.

    Unlike the Forbidden City where the structures are stereotyped in architectural style and always placed in rigidly symmetrical order, buildings in the Garden of Perfect Splendor were much livelier, with diverse architectural planes in the shape of H or of Chinese characters  and, or the carpenter's square, or fan-shaped, in addition to neat squares and rectangles. Pavilions were also diverse in shape - square, hexagonal, octagonal, cross-shaped or circular. There were corridors winding round lakes, snaking up and down the artificial hills, or running straight to connect courtyards or halls. On order of Emperor Qian Long, a group of stone structures in Western style were built in the Garden of Perfect Splendor, featuring fountains, sculptures and neatly pruned plants like those in European gardens. Designed by Guiseppe Castiglione, an Italian missionary and architect, these were the first Western-style buildings ever constructed in China.

    Allied forces of British and French troops set the Garden of Perfect Splendor afire and looted its treasures after they captured Beijing in 1860, during the Second Opium War. The "garden of all gardens" was reduced to a vast expanse of rubble, leaving just a few broken columns and archways of stone to serve as material testimony to the humiliation inflicted by the imperialist powers on China and her people. For an idea of how the garden looked like at the time of its full grandeur, we now have to count on historic records and paintings left over from the imperial archives.

The Garden of Clear Ripples:

    Construction of the garden was completed in 1764, and had its name changed into the Garden of Peace and Harmony in 1888 which, in the West, is better known as the Summer Palace.

    After completion of the Garden of Perfect Splendor in 1744, Emperor Qian Long wrote an article which, while giving a description of the garden's beauty and magnificence, demanded that his descendents stop wasting the country's human and financial resources on gardens. But just a few years afterwards he forgot what he had said and ordered construction of the Garden of Clear Ripples not far to the west of the Garden of Perfect Splendor.

  The emperor was fond of those private gardens he had visited during his inspection tours of southern China. These gardens, he had found, featured natural scenery of rolling hills and winding rivers and streams. In comparison, the Garden of Tranquility and Appropriateness on the Fragrance Hill and the Garden of Light and Tranquility on the Jade Spring Hill did not have a lake or a river. The Garden of Perfect Splendor, as the emperor saw it, was not really perfect in that it does not have hills even though it is beautiful with lakes and ponds. It so happened that in between the Jade Spring Hill and the Garden of Perfect Splendor there was Mr. Wengshan, and that down the hill there was an expanse of water known as the Wengshan Lake. So the emperor ordered construction of one more garden there, presumably as a gift to the queen mother in celebration of her 60th birthday.

    Work began in 1750 on construction of the Garden of Clear Ripples. Lake Wengshan was dredged and enlarged, and an embankment, along with a sluice gate, was built on the east bank of the lake. The Wengshan Lake had its name changed into the Kunming Lake. Meanwhile, earth from digging of the lake was piled up on Mt. Wengshan. Going hand-in-hand was construction of pavilions and other structures on the hill. Upon completion of the job, Mt. Wengshan had its name changed into the "Longevity Hill".

    The entire project was completed in 1764. The Garden of Clear Ripples, some 290 hectares large, can be divided into three parts. The first part consists of palace structures that we can see immediately after we enter the garden's east gate. As a rule, an imperial abode is invariably fitted with palace halls where the emperor worked on state affairs while staying there. The palace structures in the Garden of Clear Ripples are in a neat group like those in the Forbidden City, but are smaller in size and not as lavishly decorated. The Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, the most important palace structure where imperial audiences were given, lies in the frontal part of the palace complex in following the same ground plan as the Forbidden City. Behind the hall there is the imperial bedchamber, along with buildings designed to serve other imperial needs.

    After visiting these palace halls, chambers and courtyards, we find ourselves in the main part of the garden. The Longevity Hill is there, facing south, with a part of the Kunming Lake lying at its foot. Now let's go up the hill. In the middle of the slope we find ourselves in the Temple of Divine Gratitude and Life Prolongation, which comprises buildings in neat groups at different heights of the hill. At either side of the main structures that sit astride the axis of the slope, up the hill,

 there is a row of other buildings - temples, recreational facilities, etc. Here we are, at the top of the hill, marveling the dazzling beauty of the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion, a structure 40 meters high and glistening with tiles glazed in bright yellow and green.

    Down the hill, on the embankment on the west bank of the Kunming Lake, we are now taking a stroll. The embankment is modeled after the Su4 Embankment on the West Lake in Hangzhou, with six marble bridges counted on it. In the lake we find three islets, symbolizing the three immortals' islands of Penglai, Yingzhou and Fangzhang. At the foot of the Longevity Hill there is the Long Corridor - as long as 728 meters - that extends from east to west, through the breadth of the frontal part of the Garden of Perfect Splendor. Now we are taking one more stroll, in the Long Corridor, enjoying the Kunming Lake and the buildings on the slope of the hill. But, as we walk along, we feel even more fascinated by those colorful pictures done on the beams. Each picture tells a different story, true or legendary, which are told in traditional operas or passed down orally from generation to generation.

    Behind the Longevity Hill, at the foot of its north slope, the scenery is no less enchanting even though the place is much smaller. There is a space of just 50 meters in between the foot of the hill and the north wall of the garden. A man-made fiver, fed by the Kunming Lake, snakes round the foot of the hill, and there are a string of artificial hills along the wall, built with earth from digging of the river. We are now boating on the river, enjoying scenery on either bank, which changes as the

rivers widens and narrows. While on the mid-stream, we find, on both banks, rows of old-style shops, again the famous Suzhou Street? Behind the Longevity Hill we are afforded a different kind of visual beauty. The area is so tranquil, and so serene, in sharp contrast to the color and

grandeur we have just enjoyed at the other s.ide of the hill.

    Like the Garden of Perfect Splendor, the Garden of Clear Ripples was reduced to ruins in the Second Opium War. After the pillage, the only structures that still stood were the marble base of the Buddha Fragrance Pavilion and a few stone structures at the foot of the Longevity Hill. The garden was virtually deserted. So goes a poem by a poet who was able to see the ruins:

       Sobbing is the Jade Spring, and wailing is the Kunming

       The lone bronze bull6 crouches in thorns overgrown;

       Foxes howl in the wilderness, in the dark night

       And fish, sleepless, are waiting in vain for the daylight.

    In 1888, Empress Dowager Ci Xi ordered reconstruction of the garden's main parts, and changed the name of the garden into the Garden of Peace and Harmony. The garden was pillaged again, this time by  allied forces of eight imperialist powers that stormed into Beijing to suppress the Boxers' rebellion and bring China down on her knees.

    British, Italian and Tsarist Russian troops were stationed in the garden for a whole year, and they never hesitated to loot those imperial treasures kept there and destroy the structures. In 1902, major repairs were done on the garden. Two years afterwards, Empress Dowager Ci Xi had her

70th birthday celebrated in the garden, and that was the last time that the Qing Dynasty used the Garden of Peace and Harmony or Summer Palace to celebrate a major event. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was toppled, and China became a republic.