The Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan Park nowadays, known in China as the Gardens of Perfect Brightness, and originally called the Imperial Gardens, was a complex of palaces and gardens 5 miles northwest of the walls of the Imperial City in Beijing, built in the 18th and early 19th century, where the emperors of the Qing Dynasty resided and handled government affairs.

Ruins of the Old Summer Palace, Photo by STAR

The Palace were almost 5 times the size of the Forbidden City, and 8 times the size of the Vatican City. They had hundreds of halls, people, pavilions, temples, galleries, gardens, lakes, etc. Several famous landscapes of southern China had been reproduced in the Imperial Gardens, hundreds of invaluable Chinese art masterpieces and antiquities were stored in the halls, making the Imperial Gardens one of the largest museums in the world. There were also a few buildings in Tibetan and Mongol styles, reflecting the diversity of the Qing Empire.

Known for its extensive collection of garden and building architectures and other works of art, the Imperial Gardens were destroyed by British and French troops in 1860. Today, the destruction of the Gardens of Perfect Brightness is still regarded as a symbol of foreign aggression and humiliation in China.