Old Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan)

The burnt-out remains of the Qing imperial garden destroyed by Anglo-French troops in 1860. Substantial ruins, lakes, and the famous Western-Style Mansions stone fragments.

The Old Summer Palace was the imperial garden retreat north of Beijing, expanded across the 18th century into one of the largest landscape gardens in the world. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, Anglo-French troops looted and burned it. The site was never rebuilt. Today it's a 350-hectare park with substantial ruins, lakes, the famous Western-Style Mansions stone fragments designed by Jesuit architects, and a reflective national-memory significance for Chinese visitors.