The Old Summer Palace know in Chinese as Yuanming Yuan ("Gardens of Perfect Brightness") and originally called the Imperial Gardens was a complex of palaces and gardens located 8km northwest of the walls of the former Imperial City section of Beijing.
Constructed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries centuries it was the main Imperial residence of Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty and his successors with the Forbidden City only used for formal ceremonies.
In 1860 during the Second Opium War the French and British troops were responsive for extensive looting and destruction of the Palace. This wasn't helped when it was discovered that the Chinese had imprisoned, tortured and killed 20 of the party sent by the British and French to negotiate peace - they went back and burnt and demolished the Palace. Wikipedia
As a result of the damage done in 1860 the gardens have never been restored as it being deemed rather too difficult, expensive and forms part of the recent cultural heritage of China.
We took a train to the park and caught a taxi back, neither was expensive - the park is huge so allow plenty of time. We left right on closing time as you can see from the photo below - thats the sun in the Beijing air pollution - it is as bad as people say and while tolerable from a tourist standpoint and not so bad on this day I would not want to spend a lifetime breathing their air.
Some restoration taking place
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