Yuanmingyuan

Yuanmingyuan Park in downtown Beijing.

Yuanmingyuan Park (圆明园), which was extolled as the "Garden of Gardens," used to be a summer palace for the imperial family. The palace was continuously expanded under five emperors' supervision in Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), and its expansion continued for over 150 years.

Its glorious past might have come to an abrupt end as its buildings were destroyed by the British and French armies during the Second Opium War in 1860.

With its construction are reaching 160,000 suare meter, the massive imperial compound is now a beautiful park filled with lakes and a wide variety of plant life. To show the original appearance of the park to the visitors, part of its ancient architecture has been restored.