The Summer Palace of Epic Naming Conventions

Quick note: It seems that blogger.com is blocked in Kazakhstan where I am now and where I am posting from. So I am posting from the Blogger app on my phone. The downside is that I lose certain functionality. I can't caption the pictures. And some of them turn sideways. So, good news. You get some extra neck exercise while you read this.

I've heard of people who have "a summer house." I've even known some with that ephemeral place by the lake or full-service cabin in the mountains. But I know of no one with a summer home as fantastical as that owned by the dynastic emperors of China. We visited the Summer Palace, and let me say, "Wow!"

Yes, it is a place by a lake but, unlike others, the lake (not a tiny one) is entirely in the grounds of the palace. It is in the mountains (or one mountain) but, unlike others, the mountain is entirely in the grounds of the palace. And it is grandeur on a scale that stretches the imagination. 

The Chinese aristocracy had many talents, building great walls and great palaces among them. But let's not underrate their ability to name things. Every building and most of the natural formations inside the Summer Palace complex have the most poetic, evocative names. First let me show you the Summer Palace of the Four Seas, perfectly lined up with the Archway of Cloud and Jade Brilliance. 

A summering emperor could enjoy a long walk around his enormous lake, called Lake Kunming (not sure if that has poetic meaning or not.)

On the way, he could pass through the Purple Cloud Gate Tower. 

He could take a slight detour on to an island in the lake to see the Heralding Spring Pavilion. 

He would pass near the Hall of Jade Ripples.

And continue through the Pavilion of Literary Brilliance. 

On his way back, he could stroll at a leisurely pace along the Long Corridor. (That's more on the nose than most of the other names.)

Understand, the Summer Palace was but one of the majestic buildings in which an emperor could chill. Another choice was the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity. 

This Hall is protect by a Qilin.

Meanwhile, the emperor's mother, the Dowager Empress, had her very own Chamber of Distant Gazing on the north side of the mountain. 

Nearby was the Hall of Serene Peace. (Doesn't serene mean peaceful?)

And, perhaps best of all, everyone could enjoy the Garden of Harmonious Interests with its beautiful reflecting pool. 

Naturally, you can count on two philosophers to ruin the whole appellation aesthetic by naming one of the bridges over this pool the Fish Observation Bridge, just because they were philosophizing about the movements of the fish they were observing from the bridge. 

In all seriousness, not every building in the Summer Palace complex is original. Many of them were destroyed during the Second Opium War by the British and the French in 1860. They weren't rebuilt until the 1990s.

War does have a way of destroying beauty, doesn't it? Gives you something to think about as you gaze over Kunming Lake from the Pavilion of Clear Radiance.