Accustomed to the Manchu army life, the Qing rulers still favored garden with natural beauty while living in the majestic Forbidden City. Hence the large- scale construction of gardens in western Beijing began, and developed to the climax at the reign of Emperor Qianlong, at whose command the famous Five Gardens on Three Hills were constructed,i.e. the Jingming Garden on Yuquan Hill, the Jingyi Garden on the Fragrant Hill, the Qingyi Garden on the Wanshou Hill, the Changchun garden and the Yuanming Park. And the Qingyi Garden was the very predecessor of the Summer Palace.

For the celebration of the 60th birthday of his mother, the Emperor Qianlong intended to make use of the space among the Jingming Garden, the Jingyi Garden, the Chagnchun Garden and the Yuanming Park. He then had the large royal garden built on the Wengshan Hill in 1750. On the basis of the original Yuanjing Temple, the Da Bao' en Yanshou Temple (repaying the kindliness and prolonging life) was completed the next year. And the Weng-shan Hill was renamed Wanshou Hill and the West Lake the Kunming Lake by the emperor.The newly -built garden was conferred the name Qingyi Garden, whose construction lasted till 1764, the 29th year of the Emperor Qianlong' s reign. Finally, the 15-year project cost a total 4.8 million liang of silver.

The Qingyi Garden integrated both the grandeur of the northern secenery, the gentleness of the southern scenery and the elegance of the literati's gardens at that time. It could be regarded as the remarkable blend of northern and southern architectural art, with its royal magnificence and the delicacy of literati' s gardens.

Modeled the various architecture styles nationwide, the Qingyi Garden was home to a living and executive area in the east and Kunming Lake in the south.The former was several enclosed courtyards linked by verandas, like the northern Siheyuan, The traditional singlestory houses with rows of rooms around the four sides of a courtyard. Following the typical style of West Lake in Hangzhou ,the Kunming Lake comprise town long banks and a few islets, the west dike imitating the Sudi (Su Dike). The three islets were all equivalent to the three legendary hills on East Sea, Zaojiantang to Penglai, Phoenix mound to Yingzhou and the Zhijingge to Fangzhang. Also, the Jingming Tower on the west dike modeled Yueyang Tower at Dongting Lake, the Wangchan Pavilion on Nanhuis-land imitated Yellow Grane Tower in Wuchang, 17- Arch Bridge followed Lugou Bridge and Hui- shan Garden copied the Jichang Garden in Wuxi. To the north of the Wanshou Hill stood the group of architectures in the style of Tibetan lamasery, including the white pagoda and some blockhouse-style buildings. The commercial street inside could even be take as another Suzhou street with distince characteristics of small riverside towns at the south of the lower reaches of the Yantze River. Major scenic spots of the present Summer Palace took shape then.

However, the grand Qingyi Garden existed only for about 100 years before the ruinous disaster, i.e. the Second Opium War. The waning Qing Dynasty after the reign of Emperor Qianlong saw the attack of the Allied force of Britain and France in 1860 when the ninth Emperor Xianfeng reigned. The emperor escaped hurriedly with his wives and sons to the Summer Resort in Rehe (the present Chengde). The invaders ravished crazily the trea-sures of the royal gardens, first Yuanming Park on Oct.6, then the gardens at the western suburb since the next day. They even burned the Five Gardens to ash on Oct. 17-19. Except the bronze pavilion and some stone architecture, all pavilions, chambers and towers in the Qingyi Garden were demolished.Nothing but ruins and ashes were left.

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