The Summer Palace (Chinese: 颐和园; pinyin: Yíhé Yuán; literally "Garden of Nurtured Harmony") lies in the northwestern outskirts of Beijing, about 10 kilometers to Beijing City. It is up to now the best preserved and the largest imperial garden in China. Construction began in 1750, and today remains an outstanding example of imperial gardens in classical Chinese style. This imperial garden covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, with more than 100 picturesque sites of interest. The central Kunming Lake covering 2.2 square kilometers was entirely man made, in its compact 70,000 square meters of building space, one finds a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical-style architectural structures.

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace an "outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape garden design, incorporating the works of humankind and nature in a harmonious whole." It is a popular tourist destination but also serves as a recreational park.