As I first saw this palace in soft autumn sunlight, the western hills bathed in light but wonderfully soft in outline, the distant pagodas and temples placed on various eminences, and the great gleaming yellow-roofed red-walled buildings on the rugged hillside, their roofs of various pavilions just appearing out of the masses of foliage, it was fairyland ; and when I was able to see more closely various views of it, its great beauty became more and more impressed on my mind. The first designer of this lovely Summer Palace—well may it be named so—must have had a true appreciation of the beautiful, first of all, in the choice of such a delightful site. That bold hill, with its southern face running down to a marsh which was easily made into a lake, was certainly chosen by some one with the true artistic sense ; the same sense is shown by the wonderful way in which the buildingA were not only designed but placed to the best advantage, separately and in the mass.
The lake is largely artificial. It was a piece of marshy land, the waters from the famous " Jade Foun tain " running through it. On the northern side is the sharp and abrupt hill on which the main buildings are placed, all centred in the Great Temple built on a foun dation of the most solid masonry one can imagine, composed of immense blocks of stone very closely laid. This foundation rises to a great height ; and the front is broken by the two staircases, which in three sections on either side lead up and meet on the top, which forms a large space, from the centre of which rises the chief temple with its enormous gilded image. The temple rises in three great tiers, each with its yellow roof bordered with green. Leading up behind this gorgeous building are more stairs to another temple—The Myriad Buddha which is on the highest point of the hill. It is entirely faced with porcelain tiles of yellow interspersed with green, with a white marble triple gateway in front. On each side of this central group and cunningly placed on the steep hillside are various pavilions and memorials —some with yellow, some with green tiled roofs. There are some stone tablets and bronze tablets to famous persons of the past.
On the western side is that wonderful work of art and marvel of bronze, the Bronze Pavilion, wholly made of fine bronze : even the tiles are bronze and the floors, and the interior furniture—of which little now, I am sorry to say, is left. It is a reproval to Western civilisation that such beautiful things should be pillaged. Of the wonderfully wrought open-work windows some are gone— taken away, I believe, in 1900 ; but I was glad to hear that the British prevented the entire pillage of this place.
It would be a gracious act if the owners of those window-frames, which are, I believe, still in China, were to restore them to this unique building.
After a general inspection of this part we went on board some barges, and were rowed across the lake to inspect the Dragon Temple and the various bridges and buildings. From the water there is a wonderful view of the whole central group of temples, and this position, by the way, is entirely for state ceremonials and worship, and is enclosed by a red wall which runs along the top and down the sides of the hill.
In front of all the group and on the water's edge is the Grand Pailau, through which, by the water, is obtained the state entrance to this portion, the state audience-hall and temples. This pailau is a gorgeous thing in itself, with its huge red pillars dividing the usual three gateways ; these pillars set on white marble plinths, and carrying over them gaily coloured and gilded open-work and carvings of dragons and other mythical creatures. Over all, and divided in three, are the blazing yellow roofs.
This building is backed by the first entrance-hall, which in turn leads through to others and so reaches the state audience-chamber. Each hall rises above the other, and over all are the solid stone wall and towering temples. The great group of architecture, all reflected in the clear waters of the lake, made a picture hard to equal. I had not time, alas I to attempt to reproduce it on paper or canvas.
Looking from the steps of the entrance-hall one sees the pailau clear and massive against the lake and sky, and, through it, the Dragon Temple with a glimpse of the Seventeen-Arch Bridge.
Going on by boat we reached the curious " Marble Junk." Built about two hundred years ago, it has at various times been added to ; but the additions are not beautiful, nor do they improve the architecture. The original boat, in form like an old state junk, is good, being built of blocks of white marble and finely wrought, the stern rising high, and the whole very realistic. Built on this fine old work and rising to some height is a tawdry erection of wood, painted to imitate marble. The upper floor consists of tea-rooms for the Imperial family and their guests. Again, to meet • modern ideas, excrescences of marble have been added, to imitate roughly paddle-wheels ; this is badly done, obviously out of keeping and proportion with the original struc ture ; but the added paddle-wheels seem to suggest that the Chinese mind of some years ago really wished to adopt Western ideas, and used this means of showing its desire.