Longevity Hill () is a 60-meter-high hill in the gardens of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. Together with Kunming Lake, it shapes the basic layout of the imperial garden's landscape.

History

View of Longevity Hill with Kunming Lake in the foreground and the Tower of Buddhist Incense in the center.

When the Jin Dynasty emperor Wányán Liàng moved his capital to the Beijing area, he had a Gold Mountain Palace built on the site of present-day Longevity Hill. In the Yuan Dynasty, the hill was renamed from Gold Mountain to Jug Hill (Weng Shan). This name change is explained by a legend according to which a jar with a treasure inside was once found on the hill. The loss of the jar is said to have coincided with the fall of the Ming Dynasty as had been predicted by its finder. The Qianlong Emperor, who commissioned work on the imperial gardens to which it belongs in 1749, gave Longevity Hill its present-day name in celebration of his mother's 60th birthday.

Buildings

On its southern slope, Longevity Hill is adorned with an ensemble of grand buildings: The Cloud-Dispelling Hall, the Temple of Buddhist Virtue, and the Sea of Wisdom Temple form a south-north (lakeside - peak) oriented axis which is flanked by various other buildings. In the center of the Temple of Buddhist Virtue stands the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Fo Xiang Ge), which forms the focal point for the buildings on the southern slope of Longevity Hill. The tower is built on a 20-meter-tall stone base, is 41 meters high with three storeys and supported by eight ironwood (lignumvitae) pillars.

External Links

• summer-palace.info