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Yiheyuan , usually just referred to a the Summer Palace (daily 8am-7pm, buildings close at 4pm; Y40, students Y2), is certainly worth the effort to seek out. Take the same buses that go to Yuanmingyuan and get off a few stops later, at the terminus, or take bus #808 from Qianmen. The quickest route is to take a taxi from Xizhimen subway stop (Y15). This is one of the loveliest spots in Beijing, a vast public park, two-thirds lake, where the latterday imperial court would decamp during the hottest months of the year. The site is perfect, surrounded by hills, cooled by the lake and sheltered by garden landscaping. Surviving another bout of European aggression in 1900, the impressive buildings are spread out along the lakeside and connected by a suitably majestic gallery. There have been summer imperial pavilions at Yiheyuan since the eleventh century, although the present layout is essentially eighteenth-century, created by the Manchu Emperor Qianlong. However, the key character associated with the palace is the Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled over the fast-disintegrating Chinese empire from 1861 until her death in 1908. Yiheyuan was very much her pleasure ground. She rebuilt the palaces in 1888 and determinedly restored them in 1902 - her ultimate flight of fancy being the construction of a magnificent marble boat from the very funds intended for the Chinese navy. Whether her misappropriations had any real effect on the empire's path is hard to determine, but it certainly speeded the decline, with China suffering heavy naval defeats during the war with Japan. The palaces are built to the north of the lake, on and around Wanshou Shan (Longevity Hill) and many remain intimately linked with Cixi - anecdotes about whom are staple fare of the numerous guides. To enjoy the site, however, you need know very little. Like Beihai, the park, its lake and pavilions form a startling visual array, like a traditional landscape painting brought to life. Most visitors enter through the East Gate , where the buses stop, above which is the main palace compound, including the Renshoudian (Hall of Benevolence and Longevity), a majestic hall where the empress and her predecessors gave audience. It contains much of the original nineteenth-century furniture, including an imposing throne. Beyond to the right, is the Deheyuan (Palace of Virtue and Harmony), dominated by a three-storey theatre , complete with trap doors for the appearances and disappearances of the actors. Theatre was one of Cixi's main passions and she sometimes took part in performances, dressed as Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. With a neat sense of irony, the next main building, the Yulantang (Jade Waves Palace) on the lakeside, was for ten years the prison of the Emperor Guangxu - kept in captivity here, as a minor, while Cixi exercised his powers. Just to the west is the dowager's own principal residence, the Leshoutang (Hall of Joy and Longevity). From here to the northwest corner of the lake runs the Long Gallery , the nine-hundred-metre covered way, painted with mythological scenes and flanked by various temples and pavilions. It is said that no pair of lovers can walk through without emerging betrothed. Near the west end of the gallery is the infamous marble boat , completed by Cixi with the purloined naval cash and regarded by her acolytes as a suitably witty and defiant gesture. Close by, and the tourist focus of this site, is a jetty with rowing boats for rent (Y10 per hour). Boating on the lake is a popular pursuit, with locals as much as foreigners, and well worth the money. You can dock again over below Longevity Hill and row out to the two bridges - the Jade Belt on the western side and Seventeen Arched on the east. In winter, the Chinese skate on the lake here, an equally spectacular sight, and skates are available for rent.
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