The attraction of the Summer Palace to the rulers of Qing Dynasty mostly came from its rippling water, covering three fourths of the whole palace. After enjoying the traditional architectures on the Wanshou Hill, let's wander along the eastern and western banks of Kunming Lake appreciating the elegance of the lake area.

Prior to the Qing Dynasty, the vast expanse of water here was referred to as Wengshan water. It originated from the stream water flowing out from the southeast of the Yuquan Hill, the multitudes of spontaneously flowing sprin-gs and the accumulated rain water every year. But the Wengshan water then could never parallel the present-day Kunming Lake in terms of size. For the celebration of the empress dowager's birthday and organization of navy army, Emperor Qianlong had the Wengshan Water enlarged imitating the West Lake of Hangzhou City in 1749. Thousands of workers dug deep into the bottom of the lake and extended the Wengshan water twice the previous size.

When celebrating the empress dowager's 60th birthday, Emperor Qialong renamed the Wengshan water Kun-ming Lake. The name derived from and anecdote of Han Dynasty. In western Han Dynasty, the Emperor Wu had a large pool dug in Chang's an, i.e.the present Xi' an City, named Kunming Pool. And the navy soldiers were trained here in order to conquer Kingdom Kunming, a small country near Lake Dianchi. Also, the Emperor Qian-long recruited soldiers from the south of the lower raches of Yangtze Rive and had them drilled in Kunming Lake. However, the shallow lake was more a place for entertainment than for the training of soldiers. In summer, the royal family used to enjoy the cool on the lake. The various pleasure boats, big or small, sailed on the lake, with the melodious music in the air, a pretty jubilant scene.

The Kunming Lake was divided into two parts by the Wanshou Hill, the front part being cut into three zones by the western bank and another shorter bank. Covering over 2 million sq meters, the front part of the Kunming Lake is five times larger than Beihai. It averages 1.5 meters in depth, the deepest site reaching three meters. And it has been counted as the first large lake combined the natural beauty with man- made constructions in Beijing. Overlooking from the Wanshou Hill, people may fine that the Kunming Lake shapes like a huge peach offered as a birthday present, with the southern part narrower than the northern one. There are also three islets: Nanhu islets, Tuancheng and Zaojian islets, built according to Yingzhou, Penglai and Fangzhang, the three islands in fairy tale. It is clear that the layout of Kunming Lake catered to the ancient emperors' wish for longevity, tallying with the overall theme of the Summer Palace.

With the same name with the Kunming Pool of Han Dynasty, the Kunming Lake actually followed the style of West Lake of Hangzhou. Most typically, the six bridges at the western dike were equivalent to those at the Su Dike. Now, let us move to the western dike and appreciate the vast expanse of the rolling waters of the lake.

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