Hebei, China -

hengde, the summer retreat of the 18th century Qing emperors, was designed to be part stately pleasure dome, part manifestation of nation-building propaganda. It's open to everyone now, but the job descriptions still hold.

Chengde the town, a friendly place and small enough to get around on foot, offers no special attractions. What you're really here to see is the imperial Mountain Resort, a walled world-within-a-world, covering an area, according to the official leaflet, of 5.64 million square metres. There is also fine natural scenery, an eclectic collection of temples and a rock in the distinct shape of a – well, we'll come back to that.

RMB 90 buys entry to the palace and the Mountain Resort. To get round the complex in one day, you'll want to start early. Head for the palace first for a crash course on the historical background and political significance of Chengde's architecture, and check out the lifelike wax models of Qing emperors.

Beyond the symmetrical layout of the palace lies the imperial backyard, refreshingly wild and rambling. To the west are pavilion-studded hills. Open-sided tour buses will whiz you through for RMB 40, but walk if you want to catch more than a blur of the views, deer and chipmunks. Be ready to dive off the path pretty fast when the tourmobiles come hurtling past.

At the north end of the parkland you can climb onto the perimeter wall and take in the overall picture. It's photographically stunning, but while fiddling with your focus pause to imagine the impact the whole place was intended to create. Here, in one valley, is all China assembled under the imperial gaze: temples copied from Tibet, Xinjiang and Mongolia; Suzhou gardens; a Hangzhou-style pagoda. This is the Qing dynasty's answer to Shenzhen's Splendid China theme park.

It was architectural shock and awe, built by the great Qing emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, to hammer home the message of China's strength and unity. Visitors and envoys could hardly fail to be impressed; indeed it was in Chengde that Qianlong famously dismissed Lord Macartney with the comment that China possessed all things and so had no need of trade with Britain.

Of the eight Outer Temples which form an arc around the Resort, Putuozongcheng is the most visually arresting, being a replica of the Potala in Lhasa. An exhibition in the next-door Ximufushou Temple (itself based on the Tashilunpo in Shigatse) tells the tale of the sixth Panchen Lama, who journeyed for a year from Tibet to Chengde in order to wish Qianlong happy birthday, only to die weeks later in Beijing. He was sent home in a coffin.

Puning Temple is the only one currently in active religious use; the nearby Guangyuan Temple is in fact doing a stint as a vegetable garden and pigsty for now.

All of which leaves that pointy protuberance. You'll see signs and maps pointing to Sledgehammer Peak, Club Rock and Stick-shaped Mountain. They are all the same place. A chairlift saves an hour's walk and, once you've got up close, you are free to decide whether it looks more like a club, a stick, a sledgehammer or something else altogether.