Summer Palace opens Garden Stories VIII on 21 October

The Summer Palace opened the Garden Stories VIII exhibition on 21 October 2026 in Beijing, bringing a new museum programme into one of China’s best-preserved imperial gardens. The exhibition explores links between plants, garden design and urban life through objects from eight museums.

Garden Stories VIII opens at the Summer Palace Museum

The exhibition is presented at the Summer Palace Museum, with the Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks as organiser and the Summer Palace administration as host. A report on the 21 October opening says the show is the eighth instalment of the Garden Stories series and is open to the public.

Its 160 objects come from the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, Capital Museum, Tianjin Museum, Shanghai Museum, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Jiangxi Provincial Museum and the Hangzhou West Lake Museum. Half of the exhibits are being shown publicly for the first time, according to the report.

The display is arranged in three sections. They examine symbols drawn from the natural world, traditional garden building and domestic life, and the continuing relationship between classical gardens and contemporary cities. The programme also includes plant-themed displays, moving images of objects, a seasonal multimedia film, an interactive scroll and an installation.

Why the exhibition belongs in this imperial garden

The exhibition’s subject connects directly with the setting. The Summer Palace is divided mainly into the palace area, Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, while its museum provides a setting where garden objects can be read alongside the historic landscape.

The park was built in 1750 as Qingyi Garden and was reconstructed and renamed the Summer Palace in 1886. The official park description and history identifies the Hall of Dispelling Clouds, the Tower of Buddhist Incense and the Sea of Wisdom Temple among the principal sights on Longevity Hill.

That history gives the exhibition a specific context: visitors encounter objects about gardens inside a garden whose buildings, lake and hill were shaped across several imperial periods. The site joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998 and was included among China’s first nationally protected major historical and cultural sites in 1961.

What the three exhibition sections examine

The first section considers plants and animals as cultural symbols. The second looks at garden-making techniques and the ways people used garden spaces. The third considers how classical garden ideas can be interpreted in modern urban settings.

Among the named objects is a Ming dynasty painting from Liaoning Provincial Museum showing a garden game. A pair of birch-root carved lions from the Summer Palace collection is also being shown outside its usual setting in the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity for the first time.

Visiting Summer Palace: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• The Garden Stories VIII exhibition opened on 21 October 2026 at the Summer Palace Museum in Beijing.
• The public exhibition is part of the Summer Palace visit, with 160 objects arranged in three sections and additional multimedia presentation features.
• The address is 19 Xinjian Gongmen Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China.
• The site combines palace buildings, Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, so a visit includes historic architecture, landscaped ground and a large waterside area.
• China’s official language is Mandarin, and its national currency is the renminbi.
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about Summer Palace

When did Garden Stories VIII open at the Summer Palace?

The exhibition opened to the public on 21 October 2026 at the Summer Palace Museum in Beijing.

What is the Summer Palace?

It is an imperial garden built in 1750, reconstructed in 1886 and added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.

Where is the Summer Palace and how do you get there?

The address is 19 Xinjian Gongmen Road in Haidian District, Beijing, China. The cited official park information identifies the site and its address but does not specify a transport route.