In 1857, Britain on the pretext of "Yarrow" incident, France on the pretext of "Ma Shenfu incident", the joint invasion of China, after the invasion of Guangzhou, continue to invade Beijing, Xianfeng Emperor scared out of his wits, sent his sixth brother Prince Gong Yi? for the Minister of Qin, stay in Beijing, presided over the peace conference, himself with consorts, princes, princes and a group of ministers, panicked and fled to the Jehol Palace (now the summer residence in Chengde, Hebei Province).

October 5, the British and French allied forces under the city of Beijing. According to the information provided by the Russian diplomat Ignatieff: the Qing Dynasty defenders are concentrated in the eastern city, the northern city is the weakest place, should be the first to attack; and heard that the Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty is in the northwestern suburbs of the Yuanmingyuan. So, the British and French allied forces bypassed the Andingmen and Deshengmen, and invaded the Yuanmingyuan. on October 6, the British and French allied forces broke into the Yuanmingyuan, and immediately looted madly.

The burning of the Yuanmingyuan in a narrow sense refers to the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, the broader concept of the burning range is not only just a Yuanmingyuan, but the western part of the Royal three mountains and five gardens and so on, that is, Wanshoushan, Yuchuanshan, Xiangshan three mountains, Qingyi Garden, Yuanmingyuan, Changchunyuan, Jingmingyuan, Jingyiyuan five gardens, the scope of the incineration and the degree of its far greater than the Yuanmingyuan.

The Yuanmingyuan cultural relics were looted the number of rough statistics of about 1.5 million pieces, up to the pre-Qin period of China's bronze rituals, down to the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties of celebrities, painting and calligraphy and a variety of exotic treasures. Only the ruins of the buildings remain, and the Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park has been established.

French writer Victor Hugo in the "on the Anglo-French expedition to China to Captain Butler's letter" on the Anglo-French allied forces after the Second Opium War burning Yuanmingyuan atrocities strongly condemned, as Hugo depicted and attacked the following: one day, two robbers from Europe broke into the Yuanmingyuan. One bandit ransacked the property and the other was setting fire to it....... The two bandits, who will be sanctioned by history, are called French and the other Anglo-Saxon.

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