The Summer Retreat of Qing Dynasty at Chengde puts to shame even many landscaped retreats of the 21st century.
By having said that, one have to admit that in those days, 300 years ago, they had all the skilled craftsmen and soldiers to do a lot of work without much pay outs.
This mountain resort took over 90 years to build, starting from the 42nd year of
of Emperor Kangxi reign (1703) to the 57th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in 1792.
It has 72 scenic sports (named by Kangxi and Qianlong emperors), more than 90 towers and pavilions, as well as small bridges, inscriptions on precipices, rockeries of various sizes, many gates, places and terraces.
There are also many exhibits inside (open for viewing only)
Unfortunately, no one can completely see everything in one day.
We were there for slightly more than 5 hours and we had to hurried off in our bus. May be one day we will come back to see this place again.
(Note : We can also see a lot of the replicas in the movies or tv dramas about the Qing dynasty.)
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