Walking Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake in Beijing

Tickets, turnstiles and booking ahead

Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) (East Palace Gate) opens with a triple-eaved gate in yellow and green glazed tile, bronze lions either side of it and 'Yihe Yuan' in gold characters on a dark plaque. A wide grey flagstone forecourt feeds into the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity courtyard. The coach drop-off is here, and so are the busiest turnstiles in the park.

The gate ticket is ¥30 in peak season and ¥20 off-season, with peak running 1 April to 31 October. The through ticket is ¥60 and ¥50 on the same split, and it adds the hilltop temple, the theatre, the museum and the canal street. Entry is reservable one to seven days ahead through the park's WeChat account. Bring the passport you booked with.

Guided walks of the park run seven days a week. Book before you arrive.

Longevity Hill and the Tower of Buddhist Incense

Longevity Hill and the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Foxiangge) (above the north shore, inside the park) is where the walking turns into a climb. Stone stair flights and wooded back paths lead up to an octagonal pagoda in ochre and green, four tiers of it, standing on a huge stone terrace halfway up the wooded slope. From the terrace the view opens over Kunming Lake and the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, both laid out flat beneath you.

The stair terraces bottleneck. Guides split their parties on the way up and regroup them on the lower platform. The hill is included in the through ticket and charged separately on a gate-only ticket, so decide at the turnstile whether you are climbing.

The Long Corridor on the north shore

Long Corridor (Changlang) (north shore of Kunming Lake) is a 728-metre open-sided wooden gallery on green pillars, with four double-eaved pavilions breaking the run. Small painted scenes cover the ceiling panels and every crossbeam, one after another. Any ticket covers it.

This is the flattest and shadiest leg of the walk, and the one stretch that works for a visitor who cannot manage Longevity Hill, since the gallery holds the shore at a single level from end to end. Parts of it are single file.

The Seventeen-Arch Bridge and South Lake Island

Seventeen-Arch Bridge and South Lake Island (Nanhu Dao) (east shore, out to the island) costs nothing on top of admission. The bridge is 150 metres of white stone, reflected whole in still water, with hundreds of carved stone lions along its balustrades and a bronze ox crouching on the bank at the near end.

Stay until late afternoon. Around the winter solstice the setting sun lines up through all 17 arches for 20 minutes, which brings serious crowds of photographers onto the deck. The deck itself is wide enough to pass on. The island paths behind it are not, so walk them in single file.

West Causeway

West Causeway (Xidi) (west side of Kunming Lake) is the long walking half of the Summer Palace: a few kilometres of narrow willow-lined earth causeway splitting the open water, with the humpbacked white marble Jade Belt Bridge carrying the path over a channel and the pagoda of Jade Spring Hill standing on the skyline beyond.

Coach itineraries never come out here, and almost nobody is on the path. It is free with any ticket and has no barriers anywhere along it, so a walking party moves at its own pace. The causeway is open to wind and heat along its whole length.

Suzhou Market Street behind the hill

Suzhou Market Street (Suzhoujie) (quiet back side, near the North Palace Gate) is a sunken canal lined with two-storey timber shopfronts and hanging cloth signs. Stone steps drop to the water, arched bridges cross it, and small boats are moored below the back-hill slope.

Break a long walk here for a drink or a snack. Only the through ticket covers it, and the quayside is narrow enough that guided parties wait at the entry archway before they go down.

Wenchang Gallery, the theatre and the walled garden

Wenchang Gallery (Wenchangyuan) (east lakeshore) is the park's own museum, a low grey-brick hall beside a square watchtower-like gate. Qing bronzes, jade and court porcelain sit in glass cases in dim spotlit rooms. Keep it for an hour of rain. The rooms are small and entry runs in batches. It needs the through ticket and, like the other paid halls, shuts well before the gates do.

Garden of Virtue and Harmony (Deheyuan) (east side, near the palace courtyards) holds China's largest surviving ancient theatre, built for Cixi's Peking opera habit. The stage stands 21 metres over three timber storeys, with trapdoors and painted panels facing the courtyard and Cixi's viewing hall opposite. Old costumes and props fill the rear dressing rooms. People heading straight for the water walk past the entrance. The through ticket covers it.

Garden of Harmonious Interests (Xiequyuan) (far north-east corner) is a small square lotus pond ringed by covered walkways and red-pillared pavilions, with a flat zigzag fishing bridge across one corner and rockery and old trees closing in the walls. Any ticket covers it, and it is usually near-empty. A full coach group fills the place on its own, so walk it in twos and threes.

Eating in the park and crossing the lake

Tingliguan Restaurant (Listening to Orioles Pavilion) (under the hill) serves court-style dishes at ¥170 a head in red-pillared pavilion halls with carved beams, palace lanterns and dark rosewood tables. Screened private rooms open off a garden courtyard. Seven to eight halls seat more than 500 people between them, and evening sittings have to be booked ahead. It keeps restaurant hours of its own, so phone 010-62881955 before you build a day around it.

Summer Palace Kunming Lake dragon-boat ferry (stone quays on the lake) is a broad covered pleasure boat with a carved gilt dragon prow and a red-and-green canopy, working the water as a shuttle and loading by the boatload. A sector is ¥40 to ¥50 on top of admission, paid on the quay with WeChat, Alipay or cash. Take it when the walking has gone on long enough.

Imperial Canal (Changhe) cruise to Ruyi Gate (Beijing Exhibition Centre pier) runs 10 kilometres past the zoo to the park's own pier. The launch is low and glass-roofed, sliding under old stone bridges on a willow-walled waterway while the city apartment blocks give way to park trees at Ruyi Gate. It is ¥40 one way, or ¥70 with admission included. Sailings go at fixed times, a handful a day, and group bookings are handled at the Beijing Exhibition Centre pier.

Best time to go

Be at the East Palace Gate early. Walk the Long Corridor before mid-morning, because the painted-panel stops shuffle once the guided parties reach them. Climb after that, and keep the bridge for the end of the afternoon.

A winter visit means walking the whole loop on foot: the dragon-boat ferry is a warm-season service, and the canal launch runs April to October. The lotus is up in the Garden of Harmonious Interests in late June and July.

Is it worth the day

It suits a visitor with a full day and the legs for stone stair flights. The climb, the painted gallery, the bridge and the West Causeway ask for about that much walking. A reader who wants only the lake shore and the bridge can do those on the gate ticket.

Longer walks near the park

Yuanmingyuan Park (Old Summer Palace Ruins) (one subway stop from the Summer Palace) gives more distance underfoot. Toppled carved European-baroque columns and arch fragments lie in the grass, lotus chokes the canals and old lakebeds, and long tree-lined gravel avenues run between empty terraces. Park entry is about ¥10 and the Western Mansions ruins cost extra, with their own gate queue at the enclosure. It keeps longer evening hours than the Summer Palace.

China National Botanical Garden (North Garden and Wofo Temple) (north-west hills) was renamed from Beijing Botanical Garden when it was raised to national status in 2022. A glass pyramid conservatory stands on a hillside above formal flower beds, and a Tang-founded temple courtyard holds a 54-tonne bronze reclining Buddha on a carved bed. North Garden entry is about ¥5; the package with the greenhouse and Wofo Temple is around ¥50. The garden paths climb into the hills behind, and the conservatory and the temple keep shorter hours than the grounds.

Fragrant Hills Park (Xiangshan Gongyuan) (north-west hills) is the proper climb out here. A stone staircase trail switchbacks up a steep wooded ridge to the bare 557-metre Incense Burner Peak, with chairlift cabins strung over the slopes. Entry is about ¥10 peak and ¥5 off-season, plus the chairlift fare. Peak colour runs from late October into early November. The Red Leaf Festival weekends in that window are overwhelmed, so take a weekday morning.

Baiwangshan Forest Park (just north of the Summer Palace) is barely known to visitors. Numbered dirt-and-stone trails run through dense pine on a 210-metre hill, graded from family-easy to steep, and a small summit pavilion looks south over tower blocks and, on a clear day, as far as the Summer Palace lake. Entry is around ¥6. Facilities amount to nothing. Walk here when Fragrant Hills is full.

Before you go

The paid halls close before the park gates, the boats stop outside the warm months, and park entry is reserved one to seven days ahead on the park's WeChat account under the passport you carry with you. See the Beijing guide and the Beijing hotel search.