Beijing - a lesson to history
The Imperial City, with 28 massive temple complexes was destroyed by Western troops, and the Forbidden City heavily looted during the Opium Wars and Boxer Uprising. The Summer Palaces, bigger than the Forbidden City, were destroyed and rebuilt no less than 3x
The New Summer Palace in beijing is huge - no less than 150 buildings for you to visit, but a shadow of its former self. Destroyed twice by Western troops to 'help China see sense' in the Opium Wars and each time rebuilt at vast cost, then yet again destroyed one last time to make China pay for its Boxer Uprising in 1900. Todays construction is only partial of the vast complex before:
The Old Summer Palace, the biggest palace ever built
^The 1850s first saw the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan by those Western troops, the over-ornate opulence of the European style Old Summer Palace, what was once known as the
Chinese Versailles. Five years later the New summer Palace followed the same fate, then once more in 1900 after the Boxer Uprising was suppressed.
Yuanmingyuan had the largest gardens ever created -the Garden of Perfect Brightness
a vast complex of 200 artificially created valleys EACH containing a stream and Chinese style palace within.
all that remains. It took 3,500 troops three days to burn the place to the ground:
The Chinese govt is arguing whether to rebuild or to keep the evocative ruins as a lesson to history... most people agree its the latter that makes more of an impact.
The mile long Labyrinth
What was worse than the architectural loss was the artistic opulence the palaces were famed for, filled with treasures from China, India and Europe and said to be greater than the Forbidden City's treasures.