The origins of this site stretch back to the twelfth century, when the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty built a palace in the hills northwest of Beijing. But the Summer Palace as it exists today is largely the creation of the Qianlong Emperor, who around 1749 ordered the Western Lake expanded into three connected bodies of water to celebrate his mother's 60th birthday. He named them collectively 'Kunming Lake' after a pool built by Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty for training his navy -- an ironic echo, given the later controversy over naval funds. The design was modeled on Chinese mythology: three islands in the lake represent three divine mountains in the East Sea, while the lake itself was based on a blueprint of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou. Construction finished in 1764 at a cost of 4.8 million silver taels.

The Long Corridor stretches 728 meters along the northern shore of Kunming Lake, connecting halls and pavilions in a covered walkway that is itself a gallery. Every beam is painted with scenes from Chinese mythology, classical novels, famous landscapes, and historical episodes -- over 14,000 paintings in total. Walking its length is like leafing through a visual encyclopedia of Chinese culture. At the corridor's midpoint, the Tower of Buddhist Incense rises 41 meters from a stone base on Longevity Hill, supported by eight ironwood pillars. The Qianlong Emperor originally planned a nine-story pagoda but halted construction after the eighth story. Empress Dowager Cixi later climbed the tower to offer incense and pray -- one of many buildings she adopted as personal spaces in a palace that was, in theory, the property of the young Guangxu Emperor she kept firmly under her control.

The palace's most controversial chapter began in the 1880s, when Empress Dowager Cixi ordered its reconstruction after British and French forces had destroyed it during the Second Opium War. The funds, reportedly up to 22 million silver taels, were allegedly diverted from the Beiyang Fleet -- the Qing navy that would soon face Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. Historians continue to debate the actual amount: some sources argue that no more than six million taels were used, drawn from bank interest rather than the navy's capital budget. Whatever the figure, the symbolism proved devastating when the underfunded fleet was crushed by Japan. Cixi had the palace renamed 'Yiheyuan' -- Garden of Nurtured Harmony -- in 1888, but harmony proved elusive. In 1900, the Eight-Nation Alliance damaged the grounds again during the Boxer Rebellion.

After the last emperor Puyi abdicated in 1912, the Summer Palace became the private property of the former imperial family before opening to the public two years later. After 1949, it briefly housed the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party, and figures like Jiang Qing lived on the grounds. Today it draws roughly 10 million visitors annually, making it one of the most visited destinations in China. The 17-Arch Bridge, stretching 150 meters across the lake to Nanhu Island, is one of the most photographed structures in Beijing. The Stone Boat -- a marble replacement for the original wooden vessel burned in 1860 -- sits at the water's edge, an accidental metaphor for the entire palace: something that looks natural but is entirely constructed, something that appears to float but is anchored firmly to the ground.