Rental rowboats crowd a shoreline of Beijing’s Kunming Lake. The Temple of Buddhist Incense, with its multi-tiered roof, rises from the famed Summer Palace on Longevity Hill in the background. The opulent Summer Palace complex, located on the western edge of Beijing, was built in the mid-1700s as a retreat for Qing Dynasty imperial rulers.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, the National Geographic book Journey Into China, 1982)