Chengde is generally famous for its Chengde Imperial Summer Resort and its Outlying Temples as one of the World Cultural Heritages in China. Chengde is one of the 24 national cultural and historical cities that have been declared by the State Council. It is also one of the ten greatest places of interest in China. Chengde is also crowned as one of the China’s 44 most important scenic areas in China and one of 40 famous travel destinations in China. In 1994, Chengde Imperial Summer Resort and Its Outlying Temples were listed to be the world cultural heritage.
The total area of Chengde urban area is up to 40,000 square kilometers. The Beijing-Chengde railway, Jingzhou-Chengde railway, Beijing-Tongzhou and Jinglong railway are available. There are 5 national expressways with the total distance of 5368 kilometers. In general, there is the population of more than 3400,000. The economic development of Chengde is relying on its tourism industry, natural resources and its geographic locations. Chengde is located in the transitional zone between Inner Mongolia Tableland and North-China Plain. It is controlled by the Mountainous-region climate of temperate-zone continental monsoon. It has distinct four seasons. It is cool in summer with dense rainfalls, so generally it surely became the royal summer palace.
Paper-cut is the heritage of integration of local traditional culture and the folk art. In 1992, it was crowned as the village of China’s paper-cut by Culture Ministry and in 2005, it was listed to be one of China’s first intangible cultural heritages. Usually the best time for Chengde visit is from April to October. The local famous snack is Almond Juice, Nansha Cake, Wild-Flower-Rose Cake and the famous calling cards are Chengde woodcarving, folk paper-cut and so on
Chengde Imperial Summer Resort is currently largest royal gardens with most unique architectural styles in China. It is also called Chengde Provincial palace, and it used to be for Emperors of Qing Dynasty for sunstroke prevention and diversities of political behaviors. Summer resort in Chengde is generally divided into two parts: palace zone and garden zone. The southern part of the palace zone is for government-affair management of Emperors in the Qing Dynasty, and for grand ceremony as well as meeting the foreign ambassadors. It is also use for living place of the empress.
Imperial Summer Resort is embodied by the elegance of waterside towns in southern China and the grandness of royal architectural style. The royal garden covers 5600,000 square meters, which is larger two times than Summer Palace in Beijing and eight times than Forbidden City. It was built by three emperors in Qing Dynasty with the time of 87 years. There are 120 kinds of buildings like towers, pavilions, halls, palaces, temples, pagodas, corridors and bridges. The emperor’s scripts are easily found in the garden. In the outlying areas of Imperial Summer Resort, there are 12 temples administrated by eight sectors.
As one of the world cultural heritages, imperial summer resort is the perfect place for those who want to understand the imperial culture and Chinese traditional custom and culture released in China's architecture.
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