The Mountain Resort and the Eight Outer Temples / Chengde Shights

The Mountain Resort, known as the Temporary imperial Dwelling Palace in Hebei, is located at Chengde City Hebei Province. It is the largest imperial garden in modern China. It covers a total area of 564 square kilometers, and is twice as large as the Summer Palace in Beijing. It took 89 years (1703 ~ 1792) to complete for the sake of stabilizing the frontier region and maintaining the unity of multi-nationalities The emperors Kangxi and Qianlong of Qing dynasty were in charge of this project.

The emperors of Qing Dynasty usually came here in the forth or fifth month of the lunar calendar and went back to Beijing in the ninth or tenth month. During this period, they dealt with national affairs here. Actually, Chengde Mountain Resort became the second political center of that time.

The Palace Area and Scenic Area are the main parts of the Mountain Resort. In the past, the Qing emperors lived and dealt with some government affairs in the palace Area. It was the second center of the imperial palace at that time. The Forbidden City in Beijing was the first one. Scenic Area refers to Lake Zone, Plain Zone and Mountain Zone. It was used for entertaining and relaxing for the emperors and his family members.

In the outlying area, 11 magnificent temples stand on the hills in a semi-circle. As they were divided into eight sections under the administration of the Beijing-based Harmony and Peace Lamasery (a monastery for lamas), they were usually referred to as the "Eight Outer Temples". Only seven temples, including Puren Temple (Universal Humanity), Temple of Sumeru (Happiness and Longevity) and Puning Temple (Universal Tranquility) remain intact.

Most temples there bore earmarks of Tibetan temples. The Temple of Universal Peace was an architecture that had both Tibetan and Han characteristics. Its hind part was mainly Tibetan flat-topped constructions. They were in wooden structures with Han£style roofs, accompanied by the Lama stupas in stones and bricks in different forms. At the centre of the Chamber of Mahayana was the 22-metre statue of the thousand-hand and thousand-eye Avalokitesvara. For this the Temple is also called the"Temple of Great Buddha."

The Sumeru Temple of Fortune and Longevity alias Auxiliary Palace was built in 1780. The sixth Bainqen made a 10,000-km arduous journey in one year from the Tashilhunpo Temple in Xigaze, Tibet to the Mountain Summer Resort in Chengde to celebrate the 75th birthday of Emperor Qianlong. Then the Qing court had just defined the Rules on Reconstruction of Tibet and employed a series of reform measures. To "win over the people of a region by one man's audience in court", Emperor Qianlong decided to build this temple after the Tashilhunpo in Tibet and held a grand welcome ceremony on Bainqen's arrival. This reflected the close tie between the local authorities of Tibet and the Qing government.

The Temple of Putuo is the largest one in the "outer temples". Putuo is Chinese transliteration of Sanskrit "Potala", which is the place of Avalokitesvara. The Temple of Putuo was built in imitation of Potala in Lhasa, hence the nick-name "Little Potala". The Temple has a red terrace and a white terrace. The main part of the temple, the red terrace, is in a Tibetan form of double square loops. In the Hall of Unification of All Dharmas lies a treasure bed, which was for the Tibetan political and religious leader Dalai Lama.