Yunxuan Courtyard, Summer Palace

Yunxuan Courtyard is a historic courtyard located in the Summer Palace in Beijing. Its name means "a pavilion that gathers clouds" and it is located west of Leshou Hall and east of Paiyun Hall (Figures 1–8). It was built during the Qianlong period and is one of the few remaining buildings from the Qianlong period in the Summer Palace. It will be open to visitors in mid-October 2024. Yunxuan Courtyard is a quadrangle courtyard with a gate shaped like a Western clock. The main hall has five rooms, the east wing is called "Suixiang," and the west wing is called "Hanlu." It was a resting place for the concubines, noblewomen, and princesses who accompanied Empress Dowager Cixi to the garden. Cixi's female painter, Miao Sujun, once lived here. This year is probably a "warm winter." It's already the second nine-day period of winter, but the water in Kunming Lake hasn't completely frozen yet. No ice rink or snow park has been built, even though the ice rink was usually built by the end of the year. A few years ago, I took photos of the "golden light through the bridge" at the Seventeen-Arch Bridge on the winter solstice, and I walked directly onto the ice to take the photos. But in recent years, the lake hasn't frozen on the winter solstice.