Marble Boat (Summer Palace)
Good to know
- Best time to go
- April–June, September–October
- Budget
- $
- Accessibility
- limited
- Coordinates
- Open in maps
A two-storey lakeside pavilion in the shape of a boat, built of stone on the northwestern shore of the great imperial garden's lake. First raised in the eighteenth century and remodeled with a Western-influenced upper deck in the late nineteenth, it never sailed but served as a place for the court to take tea and enjoy the water. Paddle-wheel casings and stained-glass windows give it a distinctive look. It became a byword for extravagance because funds meant for the navy were reportedly diverted to the garden's restoration.
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