Explanation of the Imperial Garden attractions in the Palace Museum

A sample explanation of the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City is as follows:

The Imperial Garden is located on the central axis of the Forbidden City, behind the Kunning Palace. It was called the Imperial Garden in the Ming Dynasty and the Imperial Garden in the Qing Dynasty. A place to rest and play after dinner. It is also used for worship, maintenance, collection of books, and reading. The Imperial Garden is not large in area. It is a palace garden that is distinguished by its exquisite architecture and compact layout. The Imperial Garden is small in area and is characterized by exquisite architecture and compact layout.

It is only 80 meters from north to south and 140 meters from east to west. The pavilions, pavilions, ancient cypresses and locust trees inside, as well as the exotic flowers and plants, are dotted and distributed, making the entire garden both quaint and quiet. Without losing sight of the taboos of the palace, annual climbing, moon-viewing and other activities are held here. This park tour is about state of mind. When Emperor Kangxi was in a bad mood, he often came to the Imperial Garden to relax and think.

In the middle of the garden and to the north, there is the Qin'an Hall, which is the main building in the garden. The Taoist Emperor Zhenwu is enshrined in the hall. It is said that Emperor Wu was the God of Water, so every year during the seasons such as the beginning of spring, summer, autumn and winter, the emperor would go to the Qing'an Hall to set up a dojo to pray to the water god to protect the palace and eliminate fires.

On the east side of Qin'an Hall, there is an ancient cypress nearly eight meters high, which was named the Shade Throat by Emperor Qianlong. He is the most famous in the entire garden. It is said that when Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, the weather was very hot, and his entourage was sweating profusely every day. Only our Lord Qianlong returned home cool. Everyone was puzzled and accidentally came to the Imperial Garden.

Seeing that half of this ancient cypress is withered and half is lush, I said that this tree will wither after you leave Beijing. Now that you are back, it has grown new leaves again. This tree must have secretly followed you to the south of the Yangtze River, hoping to protect you from the wind and rain secretly. So a decree was passed to seal this tree as a shade throat.