Summer Palace: Kunming Lake, the Long Corridor and Longevity Hill
China's largest surviving imperial garden — three-quarters water, and best walked anticlockwise from the north gate.
Duration
3-4 hours
Cost
Park ¥30 ($4.20) Apr-Oct, ¥20 ($2.80) Nov-Mar; through-ticket ¥60 ($8.40) / ¥50 ($7)
Hours
Apr-Oct 06:00-20:00 (last entry 19:00); Nov-Mar 06:30-19:00 (last entry 18:00). Inner sites 08:30-17:00
Booking
Advance booking required
The Summer Palace (颐和园, Yíhéyuán) is where the Qing court escaped the airless formality of the Forbidden City, and you can feel the difference immediately. Where the palace is corridors and courtyards, this is water: Kunming Lake (昆明湖) occupies three-quarters of the 290-hectare site, with willows, arched bridges and a 728-metre painted Long Corridor (长廊) running along its northern shore. Every beam of that corridor carries a different painted scene — around 14,000 of them.
The climb up Longevity Hill (万寿山) to the Tower of Buddhist Incense is the payoff: a full view over the lake to the Seventeen-Arch Bridge and, on a clear day, the Western Hills beyond. It is maybe 15 minutes of steps.
Be realistic about the scale. Walking the full loop is 5-6km and most travelers underestimate it badly, arriving footsore at the far gate with no metro nearby. The site also gets heaving between 10:00 and 15:00 with domestic tour groups moving as blocks through the Long Corridor. Arrive at opening — the park gates open at 06:00 in summer, well before the inner buildings — and you get an hour of locals doing tai chi by the water with the lake nearly to yourself.
Nearest metro: Beigongmen (北宫门) on Line 4 for the north gate, or Xiyuan (西苑) on Lines 4 and 16 for the east gate. Winter freezes the lake solid and thins the crowds to almost nothing, but many boats and pavilions shut.
Practical tips
- Book a timed slot on the official Summer Palace WeChat mini-program with your passport number; same-day slots often exist on weekdays but sell out by 09:00 in summer.
- The ¥60 through-ticket adds Suzhou Street, the Tower of Buddhist Incense and the Dehe Garden theatre — worth it if you have 4 hours, not if you have 2.
- Enter at the North Palace Gate (Line 4, Beigongmen station, Exit D) and exit at the East Palace Gate — it is downhill and avoids doubling back.
- Ferries across Kunming Lake cost ¥20-30 ($2.80-4.20) one way and stop running around 17:30; they save a 40-minute walk.
- Bring water and a hat — the lakeside path has almost no shade and the site is enormous.