1860.

After the British and French forces captured Beijing in the 10th year of Xianfeng (1860), they occupied the Old Summer Palace. British army leader Elgin, with the support of British Prime Minister Palmerston, ordered the burning of the Old Summer Palace.

3,500 British and French troops rushed into the Old Summer Palace and set it on fire. The fire lasted for three days. The Old Summer Palace and the nearby Qingyi Garden, Jingming Garden, Jingyi Garden, Changchun Garden and Haidian Town were all burned. It was reduced to ruins, and nearly 300 eunuchs, maids, and craftsmen in Anyou Palace were killed in the flames.

A rough estimate of the number of plundered cultural relics in the Old Summer Palace is about 1.5 million, ranging from bronze ritual vessels from China’s pre-Qin period to famous calligraphy and paintings of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties and various rare objects. Rare treasure. Now only architectural ruins remain, and the Yuanmingyuan Heritage Park has been established. Extended information

Features of the Old Summer Palace

The Old Summer Palace covers an area of ??more than 350 hectares, of which the water area is about 140 hectares. The land building area of ??the Old Summer Palace is 10,000 square meters larger than the Forbidden City. The water area It is equal to the Summer Palace, and the total area is equal to 8.5 Forbidden City.

The Old Summer Palace stretches for 10 kilometers around and consists of the Old Summer Palace, Qichun Garden and Changchun Garden. The Old Summer Palace is the largest, so it is collectively called the Old Summer Palace (also known as the Three Old Summer Palaces). In addition, there are many subordinate gardens located on the east, west and south sides of the Old Summer Palace, including Jingyi Garden in Xiangshan Mountain, Jingming Garden in Yuquan Mountain, and Qingyi Garden (the later Summer Palace was built on this basis). etc. The total area of ??the whole park is more than 5,000 acres.

The Old Summer Palace not only brings together several famous gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, but also creatively transplants Western garden architecture, integrating the culmination of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign gardening arts at that time. There are splendid palaces, exquisite pavilions and pavilions in the garden; there is the "Business Street" symbolizing the lively market, and there are mountains and countryside symbolizing the pastoral scenery.

Some are modeled after the Autumn Moon over the Pinghu Lake and the sunset over the Leifeng Peak of West Lake in Hangzhou; some are modeled after the scenic spots of the Lion Forest in Suzhou; others are modeled after the poetic and picturesque views of ancient poets and painters, such as Penglai Yaotai, Wuling Spring Color, etc. It can be said that the Old Summer Palace is the crystallization of the Chinese people's wisdom and blood and sweat, and is also a model of the Chinese people's architectural art and culture.

Not only that, the Old Summer Palace also contains countless priceless treasures of various styles, extremely rare historical classics and rich and precious historical relics, such as calligraphy and painting of the past dynasties, gold and silver jewelry, Song and Yuan porcelain, etc., which can be called One of the treasures of human culture, it is the largest museum in the world.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Burning of Old Summer Palace