Yuanmingyuan was burned by British and French allied forces during the Second Opium War. 1860, after the British and French allied forces captured Beijing, they occupied Yuanmingyuan. China's defenders were outnumbered, and Wen Feng, the chief minister of Yuanmingyuan, committed suicide by throwing himself into Fuhai, and Chang Ai, who lived in the garden, was frightened to death. With the support of British Prime Minister Pa Max Don, Erkin, the leader of the British army, ordered the Yuanmingyuan to be burned down.

3,500 British and French troops rushed into Yuanmingyuan and set fire to it. The fire did not go out for three days. Yuanmingyuan and its nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden and Haidian Town were all burned into ruins. In Anyou Palace, nearly 300 eunuchs, maids and craftsmen were buried in the sea of fire. Turn this world famous garden into ruins.

After the destruction of Yuanmingyuan, it is still a royal forbidden garden. During the Tongzhi period, at the behest of Empress Dowager Cixi, he tried to rebuild it. At that time, it was planned to repair more than 20 ***3.000 temples, mainly concentrated in the Qianchao District, Houhu District, western and northern areas of Yuanmingyuan, as well as the Gongmen District of Wanchun Garden and the Qingxia Hall at the entrance of Fuchun Hall. However, less than 10 months after the start of construction, the maintenance was forced to stop due to financial exhaustion.

Since then, although Empress Dowager Cixi repaired the Summer Palace, she did not completely give up the restoration of the Yuanmingyuan. Until 22-24 years of Guangxu, she also repaired the Shuanghe Zhai and Jinong Xuan in Yuanmingyuan. 1900 (in the 26th year of Guangxu), Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi fled to Xi 'an with Emperor Guangxu as her arm. The order in both capital city was in chaos, and soldiers of the Eight Banners and bandits and local ruffians took advantage of the fish in troubled waters, tearing down and robbing nearly 100 buildings that remained in the park and were basically restored one after another, completely destroying the buildings and ancient and famous trees in Yuanmingyuan.