Mountain Resort in Chengde (Chinese: 承德避暑山莊) is situated in the city of Chengde (承德) Province in Hebei (河北), China. Mountain Resort was the temporary imperial residence of the emperor during summer.
The palace wall surrounding Mountain Resort is 3 meters high and around 10 kilometers long, so it is named ‘Little Great Wall’, since the wall is orange in color, it also has a nickname of ‘Tiger skin’.
From the top of the palace wall, you can overlook the ‘Eight Big Temples of Chengde (八大廟)’, those temples are gilded in golden yellow by the sunset, looks incredibly beautiful.
The palace zone of Mountain Resort is a vast complex of palaces and administrative and ceremonial buildings, which is around 100,000 square meters big.
The Kangxi (康熙) Emperor spent a total of 12 summers while the Qianlong (乾隆) Emperor spent 52 summers in Mountain Resort during the course of their reign. The Jiaqing (嘉慶) and Xianfeng (咸豐) emperors both died while staying here in 1820 and 1861 respectively.
Besides the residences of the emperors, all the buildings in Mountain Resort have been renovated as exhibition halls which display the antiques of the Qing (清) Dynasty.
