Due to its location in western Beijing, the Palace was called West Lake. The early 16th century saw Zhu Houzhao, the 11th emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had a fishing terrace built here and named the palace Haoshan Garden.

And the 14th emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yijun held large-scale fishing activites here in 1588. Subsequen-tly , nobles and royal members built architectures here one after another, resulting in the spectacular 10 scenes of West Lake.

Many renowned talents thronged here, such as Wen Zhengming in the south of the lower reaches of Yangtze River.

He once wrote poem praising highly the scenery: the ten-mile-long green hills stretch and white birds soar in the sky, like the picturesque scenery in the southern reaches of the Yangtze River. And it was in the Qing Dynasty, the last feudal dynasty that it was developed on a vast scale for the exclusive use of the emperor.

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