The beautiful former imperial garden is set off by a multitude of highly decorative buildings, halls, pavilions, bridges, towers, islands and courtyards. These structures give the visitors to the Summer Palace a feeling of perfection，magnificence and harmony which is created by this splendid layout.The Summer Palace is very famous in the world not only because it is an ingenious combination of man-made architecture with the scenic beauty of nature, but also it is an architectural masterpiece and treasure of the traditional art of Chinese gardening. The Summer Palace harmoniously combines artificial and natural attractions into a picturesque landscape.

1. The History of the Summer Palace

The Summer Palace has a history of over 800 years, which goes back to the Liao and Jin Dynasties. It was first built at the beginning of the 12″ century. In 1153，when the Jin Dynasty made Beijing its Central Capital (at that time Beijing was called Yanjing 燕京)，they started to build a temporary palace on the present site of the Summer Palace where the hill was called Golden Hill, so the palace was called Golden Hill Palace. The lake located at the foot of the Golden Hill got its water from the Jade Spring Hill and was called Golden Water Pond.

In the Yuan Dynasty(1206-1368), the name of the hill was changed to Jar Hill(Wengshan 瓮山)，because it was said that an old man had dug up a jar from the hill. And then the lake was called Jar Hill Pond (Wengshanpo瓮山泊).In order to develop the water transportation system in the Yuan Great Capital,the Yuan Emperor Kublai Khan ( reigned 1260 ~1294) ordered Guo Shoujing,a famous hydraulic expert to supervise the project of bringing water from Shenshan Mountain in Changping, in the northern outskirts of Beijing, to the Jade Spring Hill which was to the west of the Summer Palace. Then the water was brought to Jar Hill Pond which was expanded into a vast pool, and finally the water was led to the city of Yuan Great Capital.

In the early Ming Dynasty(1368~1644)，it was called West Lake. Later, Emperor Hongzhi, the 9* emperor of the Ming Dynasty (Zhu Youtang reigned 1488 ~1505),built Yuanjing Temple on the Jar Hill in 1494 to pray for longevity for his wet nurse. Following that,Emperor Zhengde, the 10* emperor of the Ming Dynasty(Zhu Houzhao reigned 1506~1521), who was fond of visiting the outstanding places with natural beauty, named this area the Wonderful Imperial Garden (Haoshanyuan) and then built an Imperial Residence by the lake. So the natural beauty of the hill and pond became the most ideal place for the emperor.
All this wonderful scenery and structures made a good foundation and offered a great advantage for the later Garden of Clear Ripples in the Qing Dynasty.