The Old Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan, lies in Haidian district in northwest Beijing, a few kilometres from the Summer Palace. It was created in the eighteenth century as the Qing emperors' principal garden residence, expanded over several reigns, and at its height combined Chinese garden design with a set of European-style palace buildings and fountains laid out with the help of Jesuit missionaries at court.
What happened here
In October 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French troops looted the complex and burned it. Much of the collection was destroyed or taken abroad, and the buildings were never rebuilt. The site was left as ruins, and that is how it is presented today: a large park with fragments of carved stone, broken columns and terrace walls standing among trees and water.
The ruins and the park
The best-known remains are in the western part of the park, the site of the European-style palaces. The Great Fountain Ruins - a broken arch of carved stone - is the image most people recognise, and the maze-like waterworks, terraces and column bases around it are laid out along paved paths with English signage explaining each structure. The rest of the park is a Chinese garden landscape of lakes, islands, bridges and causeways, planted with willows and lotus. In July and August the lotus beds along the northern lakes are the largest in Beijing.
Practical information
The park is open daily, with a small admission fee and a separate ticket for the ruins area. Allow about two hours on foot, or longer if you use the shuttle carts that run across the site - it is a very large park and the distances are real. The metro stops at Yuanmingyuan Park station on Line 4, and the Summer Palace is a short taxi ride east.
Why go
This is an unusual site for visitors: a major imperial garden shown as a ruin, with the historical events of 1860 documented on site rather than smoothed over. Read the panels in the ruins area first, then walk, and the park makes far more sense.
