Old Summer Palace

The Old Summer Palace, known in China as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness ({{zh-cp|c=圆明园 / 圓明園|p=Yuánmíng Yuán}}), and originally called the Imperial Gardens ({{zh-cp|c=御園|p=Yù Yuán}}), was an extremely large complex of palaces and gardens 8 km (5 miles) northwest of the walls of Beijing, built in the 18th and early 19th century, where the emperors of the Qing Dynasty resided and handled government affairs, the Forbidden City inside Beijing being used only for formal ceremonies. Also known to be one of the largest museums in the world (a popular name in China was the "Garden of Gardens", 萬園之園), the Imperial Gardens were entirely destroyed by British and French troops in 1860. Today, the destruction of the Gardens of Perfect Brightness is still felt inside China as a vivid symbol of foreign aggression and humiliation.

Aftermath

Following this cultural catastrophe, the imperial court was forced to relocate to the old and austere Forbidden City where it stayed until 1924, when the Last Emperor was expelled by a republican army. Empress dowager Cixi built the Summer Palace (頤和園 - "The Garden of Nurtured Harmony") near the Old Summer Palace, but on a much smaller scale than the Old Summer Palace.

Related Topics:
1924 - Last Emperor - Cixi - Summer Palace

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Only the European-style palaces survived the fire since - unlike the Chinese-style structures - they were made of stone . A few ruined stones of these European buildings still stand on the site today. This is maybe why unknowing visitors sometimes wrongly assume that the Old Summer Palace was made up only of European-style buildings.

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A few Chinese-style buildings in the outlying Elegant Spring Garden also survived the fire. The Chinese imperial court restored these buildings and tried to rebuild the whole complex of the Imperial Gardens, but it was impossible to muster the money and resources for such an immense task due to the difficult situation of China at the time. In 1900, whatever buildings had survived or had been restored were burnt for good by the Western expeditionary forces sent to quell the Boxer Rebellion.

Related Topics:
1900 - Boxer Rebellion

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Most of the site was left abandoned and used by local farmers as agricultural land. Only in the 1980s was the site reclaimed by the Chinese government and turned into an historical site.

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