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.
| The Summer Palace | |
