Located
in the northern part of Haidian District in Beijing, Yuanmingyuan (Garden
of perfect Brightness) is also called the Old Summer Palace by Western
tourists, and is distinguished from the Summer Palace in this way.
History
The construction of the park buildings started in the 18th year of Emperor
Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1709A.D.), went through six emperors and finally
finished the building of Yuanmingyuan. In October 1860, the Anglo-French
forces sacked and looted Yuanmingyuan and burned it to the ground. More
information...
Former
lay out and architecture
Yuanmingyuan is composed of three comparatively independent but interconnected
gardens: Yuanmingyuan (Garden of perfect Brightness), Changchunyuan
(Garden of Eternal Spring), and Qichunyuan (Garden of Blossoming Spring).
The Yuanmingyuan Park covers a total area of 350 acres and the architecture
area of 160, 000 square meters, 10,000 square meters larger than the
Forbidden City. More information...
Culture
Yuanmingyuan was also an imperial museum with a vast collection of cultural
treasures. The French writer Victor Hugo once remarked, "With all
its treasures, Notre Dame in Paris is no match for Yuanmingyuan, that
enormous and magnificent museum in the East." Furniture made of
red sandalwood decorated the numerous halls in which countless rare
cultural relics were on display. As one of the four most famous imperial
libraries, the Wenyuan Hall (Hall of Literary Profundity) in the garden
originally housed such precious ancient books as The Complete Library
of Four Branches of Book, Gems of the Complete Library of Four Branches
of Books, and The Completed Collection of Graphs and Writings of Ancient
and Modern Time
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