Yuanmingyuan Park
Sprawling imperial garden ruins of marble columns and shattered fountains from a palace burned in eighteen sixty.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Yuanmingyuan Park in Beijing opens in September 1860, when Qing forces seized a British diplomat named Harry Parkes and a group of British and French officers who had ridden out under a truce flag during the Second Opium War, binding them with wet rope and holding them for weeks. It follows Lord Elgin's response when the survivors returned with their story, and the choice he made about where to aim it, at the emperor's private garden rather than the throne room where he ruled. Walk the grounds slowly, the guide points out details easy to miss along the paths.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Summer Palace
Vast imperial garden of a lake and hill, with pavilions, a marble-style boat and covered walkways rebuilt for an empress.
Fragrant Hills Park （East Gate 2）
Imperial hillside retreat and pleasure garden, twice burned by foreign armies, later a secret revolutionary headquarters.
Beihai Park
Sprawling imperial garden lake ringed by pavilions, centered on an islet crowned with a white Tibetan dagoba.
Poly Art Museum
Museum of repatriated bronze zodiac fountain heads looted from an imperial water clock, alongside ancient Chinese bronzes and Buddhist stone sculpture.
Prince Gong Mansion
Sprawling Qing-dynasty courtyard mansion and garden built for a disgraced minister, now a museum of imperial luxury.
Forbidden City
Vast Ming-dynasty imperial palace of golden-roofed halls and courtyards, home to twenty-four emperors over five centuries.