Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan)

National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit; Imperial Garden Complex Begun 1707 And Destroyed By British And French Forces In 1860, Preserved As A Ruin · Beijing, Beijing

Eight hundred acres of lake, island and broken marble in north-west Beijing, and the most politically charged ground in the city. The Yuanmingyuan was begun in 1707 and built up by three Qing emperors into something without parallel - a complex of gardens, palaces, libraries and waterworks so large it was called the Garden of Gardens, including a set of European-style stone mansions designed by Jesuit priests at the Qianlong court with a fountain clock that told the hours with twelve bronze animal heads. In October 1860, at the end of the Second Opium War, British and French forces looted it and Lord Elgin ordered it burned; it took several days. China has deliberately never rebuilt it. What you walk through instead is a park of lakes and planting with the Xiyanglou - the Western Mansions - left exactly as the fire left them, carved marble columns and pediments lying where they fell, which is the image every Chinese schoolchild knows. The bronze animal heads are still being repatriated one at a time, and each return is national news.

28 Qinghua West Road, Haidian District, Beijing, Beijing, China

Open daily, generally 7:00-19:00 or 20:00 in summer and 7:00-17:30 in winter, with last entry about an hour before closing. The main park and the Xiyanglou (Western Mansions) ruins are SEPARATELY TICKETED; a combination ticket covers both plus the maze. Real-name booking and ID at the gate are expected. Lake boats are seasonal and stop when the water freezes.

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