
Introdution
Kunming Lake is the central lake on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. Together with the Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake forms the key landscape features of the Summer Palace gardens.
With an area of 2.2 square kilometres (0.8 sq mi), Kunming Lake covers approximately three quarters of the Summer Palace grounds. It is quite shallow, with an average depth of only 1.5 metres (5 ft).
History & Background
Kunming Lake is a man-made lake. Its predecessors were called Wengshan (Jar Hill) Pond and Xihu Lake. They were reservoirs which had been used as sources of water both for the city and irrigation of fields over a period of 3,500 years. Guo Shoujing, a famous astronomer and engineer in his time, developed it into a reservoir for the capital of the Yuan Dynasty in 1291. The conversion of the area into an imperial garden was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor with the work being carried out between 1750 and 1764. In the course of creating the gardens, the lake area was extended by a workforce of almost 10,000 laborers.
In the year 1990 and 1991, the Beijing Municipal Government undertook the first dredging of the lake in 240 years. A total of 652,600 cubic metres (853,600 cu yd) of sludge were removed in the work. 205 Japanese bombs dropped during the Sino-Japanese War were also found.
Highlight (What to see)
Kunming Lake is designed to represent the traditional Chinese gardening practice of "one pond, three hills" (????). Like the islands in Hangzhou's West Lake and the Forbidden City's Taiye Lake, they were intended to represent three islands of the immortals mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas: Penglai, Yingzhou, and Fangzhang. Kunming's three are named "South Lake Island", "Round Fort Island", and "Alg?-view Hall Island"
Many features of Kunming Lake are inspired by natural scenery from the region south of the Yangtze River. In particular, the West Dike is a recreation of the famous Sudi Dike on West Lake in Hangzhou. It cuts diagonally through the southern part of the lake. Like the Sudi Dike, the West Dike is connected through six bridges, each with its own distinctive style: Jiehu, Binfeng, Yudai, Jing, Lian, and Liu.
The largest bridge on Kunming Lake is the 17-Arch Bridge that connects the eastern shore with South Lake Island, representing Penglai.[citation needed] Close to the bridge on the eastern shore stands a bronze ox sculpture. According to Chinese legend, Yu the Great used an iron ox to prevent flooding. Since the bronze ox is located on the eastern dike of Kunming Lake in the direction of the Forbidden City, it was probably erected in order to protect the Forbidden City from flooding.

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Duration:7-8 Hours
Attractions(Cities):Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace
Tour Style:One day, four Beijing essentials — Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace — with a private English-speaking guide and your own air-conditioned car and driver. Itineraries run daily, take 7–8 hours door to door, and can start from your Beijing hotel, a train station or the airport arrivals gate. Your guide walks you through Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) palace courts with real dates instead of legend, then takes you to a genuine local kitchen for Peking Duck — you order, you pay for what you eat, and vegetarian, halal or lighter meals are easy to arrange. Want to fold in Tai Chi at the Temple of Heaven, a hutong morning market, Peking Opera or Hanfu photos? Just tell us; the car and the day are yours.
Duration:2 Days, 1 Night
Attractions(Cities):Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Nanluoguxiang, Mutianyu Great Wall, Summer Palace
Tour Style:Two days, one night, six Beijing essentials — with a private English-speaking guide, your own car and driver, and one overnight in a city-centre four-star. Day one: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (3,400-metre red wall, 980 buildings), a hutong lunch stop, the Temple of Heaven, then evening on Nanluoguxiang. Day two: an early start to the Mutianyu Great Wall — cable car up, optional toboggan down — then the Summer Palace and its 728-metre Long Corridor before drop-off at your hotel, station or airport. Tell us if you want to fold in Peking Duck, 798 Art District, flag-raising at dawn, Chinese acrobatics, a street-snack crawl or Hanfu photos.
Duration:3 Days, 2 Nights
Attractions(Cities):Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Jingshan Park, Summer Palace, Kunming Lake Boat Riding, Nanluoguxiang, Panjiayuan Antique Market, Mutianyu Great Wall, Bird's Nest, Water Cube
Tour Style:Three days, two nights in a city-centre four-star, eleven Beijing essentials and a private English-speaking guide, your own air-conditioned car and a professional driver for the whole trip. Day 1: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (3,400-metre red wall, 980 buildings), Jingshan Park for the north panorama over golden roofs, evening on Nanluoguxiang. Day 2: the Mutianyu Great Wall — cable car up, optional toboggan down — back through the city for a walk around the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube lit up. Day 3: the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace with a boat on Kunming Lake, and a slow hour at the Panjiayuan antique market before drop-off at your hotel, station or airport. Lunch isn’t included — your guide takes you to genuine local kitchens and you pay for what you eat.
Duration:5 Days, 4 Nights
Attractions(Cities):Mutianyu Great Wall, Bird's Nest, Water Cube, Qianmen Street, Morning Market, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Jingshan Park, Temple of Heaven, Nanluoguxiang, Facial Makeup Painting, 798 Art Zone
Tour Style:Five days, four nights in a city-centre Beijing hotel with a private English-speaking guide, your own car and a professional driver. This is the ‘beyond the surface’ version of Beijing — yes, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (3,400-metre red wall, 980 buildings), Jingshan Park for the golden-roof panorama, the Temple of Heaven and the Mutianyu Great Wall are all in, but the tour also threads in a dawn hutong morning market, a face-painting workshop with a working Peking Opera artist, the 798 Art District’s galleries and cafés, an evening at Qianmen pedestrian street, and a slow look at the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube at the old Olympic Park. Lunch isn’t included on purpose — your guide takes you to genuine local kitchens each day and you pay for what you eat. Drop-off on Day 5 at your Beijing hotel, station or airport.
Duration:10+ Hours
Attractions(Cities):Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum
Tour Style:A long but focused day trip to the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. Your private English-speaking guide and car meet you at your Xi’an hotel, train station or airport (arrive from Beijing by G-series high-speed rail — 4.5–6 hours, or an early flight if you prefer). Lintong, 35 km east of Xi’an, holds roughly 8,000 life-size clay soldiers, horses and chariots buried with the first emperor Qin Shi Huang around 210 BC and rediscovered by farmers digging a well in 1974 (UNESCO-listed). You’ll cover Pit 1, Pit 2, Pit 3 and the bronze-chariot museum at a proper pace, break for lunch at a local noodle kitchen on your own bill, and finish back at your Xi’an pickup point or the station for the evening train. Total door to door: 10+ hours.
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