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Brief Introduction
The Mountain Resort is also called Chengde LiGong or ReHe
Palace, which is located in the northern center of Chengde
city, a place where the emperors of Qing Dynasty spent summer
and handled political mandate. It lies in a long-narrow
valley along the bank of Wulie River, 230kilometers from
Beijing. Its construction began in 1703, through 3 emperors’
effort of Qing Dynasty: Kanghsi, Yongzheng and Qianlong,
ended after some 90 years. Compared with Beijing Zijin Cheng,
the Mountain Resort is relatively simple and elegant with
its unique nature of the mountain village. It is based on
Chengde’s natural landscape and adapted characteristics
of Jiangnan scenery, now the largest ancient imperial palace
in China.
On the way northward to inspect his land,
Emperor Kanghsi found Changde was an ideal place with good
local topography, pleasant weather and beautiful scenery,
especially on the right way to the cradle of Qing Dynasty,
really an entrance to the emperor’s hometown. Right here,
the emperor could easily control the whole China inside
Shanhaiguan Pass as well as handling every part of Mongolia,
so Rehe XingGong was decided to be built on this land. In
1703 (the 42nd year after Kanghsi’s enthronement), the construction
began. In 1713, Kanghsi 36 Scenes and the enclosing wall
were completed. Its construction stopped during Yongzheng
ruling period. The construction was resumed in 1741 and
in 1792 the Mountain Resort was completely finished with
the added Qianlong 36 Scenes and the outlying temples. Covering
564 hectares, the Mountain Resort is a unique royal garden
with magnificent scale, a precious landscape architectural
masterpiece left by our ancestors.
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