Tower of Buddhist Incense

As the symbolic structure in the Summer Palace, the Tower of Buddhist Incense was built on the Longevity Hill during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It is a classic work of Chinese architecture. It was a religious structure originally planned to be a nine-story tower, but ordered to be dismantled and change to a Buddhist tower for worshipping Buddha when the eighth storey was under construction. Like many buildings in the Summer Palace, this largest individual structure in the park was destroyed and rebuilt later during the reign of Emperor Guangxu. On the first day and fifteenth day of each lunar month, the Empress Dowager Cixi would go there to pray and burn joss sticks. With a cost of 780,000 taels of silver, the Tower of Buddhist Incense was the biggest reconstruction project.