Old Summer Palace

Old Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace as depicted in Forty Scenes of the Yuanmingyuan, a series of paintings completed in 1744
Simplified Chinese	圆明园
Traditional Chinese	圓明園
Literal meaning	Gardens of Perfect Brightness
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yuánmíng Yuán
Imperial Gardens
Simplified Chinese	御园
Traditional Chinese	御園
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yù Yuán

The Old Summer Palace, known in Chinese as Yuanming Yuan (圆明园; 圓明園; Yuánmíng Yuán; "Gardens of Perfect Brightness"), and originally called the Imperial Gardens (御园; 御園; Yù Yuán), was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. It is located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) northwest of the walls of the former Imperial City section of Beijing. Constructed in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Old Summer Palace where the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty and his successors resided and handled state affairs; the Forbidden City was used for formal ceremonies. The Old Summer Palace was known for its extensive collection of garden and building architecture and other works of art. It was also called the "Garden of Gardens" (万园之园; 萬園之園; wàn yuán zhī yuán) in its heyday.

In 1860, during the Second Opium War, as the Anglo-French expedition force relentlessly approached Beijing, two British envoys, a journalist for The Times and a small escort of British and Indian troopers were sent to meet Prince Yi under a flag of truce to negotiate a Qing surrender. Meanwhile, the French and British troops reached the palace and conducted extensive looting and destruction. Later on, as news emerged that the negotiation delegation had been imprisoned and tortured, resulting in 20 deaths, the British High Commissioner to China, Lord Elgin, retaliated by ordering the complete destruction of the palace, which was then carried out by British troops.