The Yuanming Yuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness, sometimes called the Old Summer Palace), now sits isolated from the main Summer Palace, but was a collection of princely gardens fused into the main mass by the Qing Qianlong emperor in the mid-18th century. He commissioned Jesuits at his court to design and construct a set of European-style buildings in one corner, which they likened to Versailles. Unfortunately, all the traditional Chinese halls were burned down by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. Later the European-style buildings were pulled down, and much of the remains carted away by the locals for building purposes. Chinese narrations of the devastation criticize both the marauding European troops and the ineffectual Qing Dynasty rulers. Today, Yuanming Yuan is a jumble of sad, yet graceful fragments of stone and marble strewn in the Eternal Spring Garden in the park’s northeastern corner. A small museum displays images and models of the palace, depicting its scale and magnificence. The Palace Maze has been recreated in concrete to the west of the ruins. The rest of the park is a pleasant expanse of lakes, pavilions, gardens, and walks.

Yuanming Yuan Map

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Tips: 28 Qinghua Xi Lu, Haidian. Xizhi Men, then bus 375. 7am-6:30pm daily.