{"id":1039,"date":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-08T02:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T06:29:14","slug":"summer-palaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/?p=1039","title":{"rendered":"Summer Palaces"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 102, 153);\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Summer Palaces<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Summer_Palace_layout-lpx.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"399\" height=\"227\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Qingyiyuan, Gardens of Clear Ripples,<br \/>\nthe Summer Palace <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Summer_Palace\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">with Kunming lake<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Summer-Palace.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"213\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Around 1749, the Qianlong Emperor decided to build a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dQHPb-NJCXk\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">summer palace<\/span><\/a> in the vicinity of Jar Hill to celebrate the 60th birthday of his mother, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empress_Xiaoshengxian\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Empress Dowager Chongqing<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Longevity Hill is about 60 m-high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 sqkm, was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3y28R9f5qEc\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"155\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">In the name of improving the capital&#8217;s waterworks system, he ordered the Western Lake to be expanded further west to create two more lakes, Gaoshui Lake and Yangshui Lake. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Throne-rm-SP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"197\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Throne room in Summer Palace<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The three lakes served not only as a reservoir for the imperial gardens, but also a source of water for the surrounding agricultural areas.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Marble-boat-Villa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"170\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">36 mtr long Marble Boat<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Smmr-Palace-corridor.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"219\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">At the foot of the hill is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dQHPb-NJCXk\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">the Long Corridor<\/span><\/a> that stretches 700 meters. The beams of the corridor are decorated with over 8,000 colored paintings, which contributes to its fame as the most charming corridor in the world. The corridor is located amidst the Kunming Lake, the western bank of which is said to mimic the Su Causeway of the West Lake in Hangzhou.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Summer-Palace-bldng.jpg\" width=\"197\" height=\"133\" alt=\"\" \/>&nbsp;&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Summer-Palace-tower.jpg\" width=\"197\" height=\"133\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Its construction lasted from 1153 to 1764. Many architectural features in the palace were built to resemble various attractions around China. Partially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinaculturetour.com\/beijing\/summer-palace.htm\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">restored in 20th century<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"310\" height=\"170\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e-XHMU94W7A\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Yuanmingyuan, the <span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Old_Summer_Palace\">Old Summer Palace Complex<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Old-summer-palace-layout.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"399\" height=\"108\" style=\"text-align: left;\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/visualizingcultures.mit.edu\/garden_perfect_brightness\/ymy1_essay03.html\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The Garden of perfect brightness<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>The Imperial Paradise<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">It was the main imperial residence of the Qianlong Emperor and his successors, where they handled state affairs; the Forbidden City was only used for formal ceremonies. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Widely perceived as the pinnacle work of Chinese imperial garden and palace design, the &quot;Old Summer Palace&quot; was known for its extensive collection of gardens, its building architecture and numerous art and historical treasures. It was reputed as the &quot;Garden of Gardens&quot; in its heyday.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">It was one of three large imperial gardens.&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\">Yuan is Chinese for &quot;garden&quot;.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\">The Garden of Perfect Brightness (Yuanming Yuan), <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\">the Garden of Eternal Spring (Changchun Yuan), and <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\">the Garden of Elegant Spring (Qichun Yuan). <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\">These gardens are collectively referred to as the Yuanming Yuan, although they were distinctly separate projects.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VAeVYL3ywYA\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"155\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Initial construction began in 1707 during the reign of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kangxi_Emperor\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Kangxi Emperor<\/span><\/a>. It was a gift for the emperor&#8217;s fourth son, Prince Yong (the future <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Yongzheng_Emperor\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Yongzheng Emperor<\/span><\/a>), who would greatly expand the Imperial Gardens in 1725. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The Yongzheng Emperor also introduced the waterworks of the gardens, creating lakes, streams and ponds to complement the rolling hills and grounds, and named 28 scenic spots within the garden.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">He also constructed a number of &quot;living tableaux&quot; he and his family could observe and interact with. One such scene was called &quot;Crops as Plentiful as Fields&quot; which involved court eunuchs pretending to be rural farmers on an island. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The &quot;Courtyard of Universal Happiness&quot; was a mock village where the imperial family could interact with shopkeepers, again eunuchs in disguise.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Lateron, Emperor Yongzheng tired easily, and this drove him to look for elixirs of health and life. Taoist priests came up with remedies. These elixirs contained heavy metals which probably contributed to Yongzheng&rsquo;s sudden death. Upon succession, his son Qianlong drove the Taoist priests out.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/fanghu-shengjing-old-summer-palace.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"208\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>Fanghu Shengjin<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">During the Qianlong Emperor&#8217;s reign, the second expansion was well underway and the number of scenic spots increased to 50. The Garden of Eternal Spring was begun in 1749, till 1783, on 26 ha, and consisted of hundreds of acres of pavilions, palaces, lakes, pagodas, streams, bridges, pathways, artificial hills, etc.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">One of his Jesuit artists showed the Emperor engravings of the fountains at Versailles, France. Fascinated, the Emperor commissioned his friend Giuseppe Castiglione to oversee the construction of a similar fountain. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">This project quickly expanded from a single fountain to an entire complex of palaces, scenic views, and waterworks, involving tens of thousands of people.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Privileged guests would encounter, upon entering, a sequence of stone buildings done in a hybrid Chinese-European style, known as the Xiyang Lou, or &ldquo;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EVU_QCtwx_Y\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">European Palaces<\/span><\/a>.&rdquo;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/OSP_drwngs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"111\" \/>&nbsp;&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Haiyantang-wtr-clock-fntn-12-statues.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"111\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">According to traditional Chinese garden design, a garden should include discrete scenes that are sequentially revealed to the visitor as they traverse the landscape. Each view should contain an unexpected element that would astonish the viewer in its creativity and cleverness. Their &quot;<a href=\"http:\/\/afe.easia.columbia.edu\/chinawh\/web\/s5\/index.html\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">European Palaces<\/span><\/a>&quot;, despite their foreign appearance, were fully in line with this tradition. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">With palaces in Europe, the building was the central focus. In this Chinese paradise, the mostly single-storied buildings were linked together, and formed just one part of the view. Altogether there were up to 3000 &ldquo;individually named structures&rdquo;, of a total floor space of 160.000 km<\/span><\/span>&sup2;<span style=\"font-family: Verdana; font-size: small;\">&nbsp;+ 130 &ldquo;formal views&rdquo;, spread out over 800 acres.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/OSP-digital.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"147\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/magazines\/post-magazine\/long-reads\/article\/2181613\/beijings-old-summer-palace-computer-modelling\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Digital remake<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;<\/strong><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><strong>of one of the European style Palaces<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">A wall enclosed the section of the garden of the European palaces. Only their tall roofs, covered in traditional Chinese ceramic tiles, were visible from the rest of the complex. The viewer would have no reason to suspect that the buildings were unusual until they passed through the gate and suddenly encountered this fantastical vision of Europe on.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Old-Summer-Palace-digital.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"180\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The Qianlong emperor, or his consorts, never lived in any of the European palaces. Their function was to hold his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/exhibitions\/listings\/2011\/emperors-private-paradise\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">enormous collections<\/span><\/a> of European and European-style objects. Some of these treasures were given to him by European monarchs, while others were imported from the West, or even created in China as imitations of European luxury goods.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The emperor constructed the &quot;Distant Waters Observatory&quot;, specifically to display a set of Beauvais tapestries gifted to him by King Louis XV of France. These tapestries, designed by Fran&ccedil;ois Boucher, depicted imaginary scenes of China. This was a unique situation in which a European artist&rsquo;s vision of Asia was hung in a fantasy European architectural setting commissioned by a Chinese emperor:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Image%20of%20China.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"223\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The Aviary, which held the emperor&rsquo;s menagerie of peacocks and exotic birds, appeared to be entirely Chinese in design from the western fa&ccedil;ade. However, after the visitor exited the Aviary on the eastern side, they would look back over their shoulder to see a curved fa&ccedil;ade done in an exuberant European Rococo style. It would have appeared to them as if they had entered the building in China and exited it in Europe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Another visual trick was placed at the far eastern end of the European Palaces section. After descending from the Hill of Linear Perspective, the visitor would get on a boat to cross the Square Lake. On the eastern shore of the lake, Castiglione had painted twelve illusionary scenes using European linear perspective. These paintings were meant to fool the viewer into thinking that an entire European city street had been constructed in the garden.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/OSP-CGI-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"110\" \/>&nbsp;&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/OSP-CGI-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"110\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The Qianlong emperor also had a particular interest in European technology like clocks and automata. In the garden maze (in Chinese, &ldquo;The Garden of Ten Thousand Flowers&rdquo;), the first to be built in China, there was a marble building that housed a collection of bird automata that could sing, as well as a large music box that had been brought from Europe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The fountains constructed in these gardens form another collection of European-style machines and are particularly impressive from both an aesthetic and engineering point of view. The fountain in front of the Hall of Calm Seas included an ingenious water clock comprised of sculptures depicting the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, including rat and rabbit sculptures. Each animal was associated with a specific two-hour period of the day and water would shoot from the animal&rsquo;s mouth during the appropriate time:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2022%20pics\/12zodiac-heads.jpg\" width=\"333\" height=\"219\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Each day at noon, water would spout from all of the animals at once. Although these fountains were constructed using European hydraulics, their imagery was adapted to suit Chinese taste. European nude figures were not used. Instead, the fountains&rsquo; iconography referenced Chinese traditions, such as the animals of the zodiac, as well as other mythological stories and Daoist parables.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/OSP-painting.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"165\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The splendors of the palace and the grounds were depicted in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Forty_Scenes_of_the_Yuanmingyuan\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">40 Scenes of the Yuanmingyuan<\/span><\/a>, an album produced in 1744 by Qianlong&#8217;s court painters. Qianlong personally directed the design and construction process, including a library with over 120.000 books, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Siku_Quanshu\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Siku Quanshu<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/ahr\/article\/122\/3\/680\/3862790\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">The last European appearance in the Old Summer Palace<\/span><\/a> was a diplomatic mission in 1795 representing the interests of the Dutch and nearly bankrupt <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dutch_East_India_Company\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Dutch East India Company<\/span><\/a>. The Titsingh delegation included Isaac Titsingh, the Dutch-American Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest, and the Frenchman Chr&eacute;tien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Houckgeest.JPG\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"207\" style=\"text-align: center;\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/china.usc.edu\/emperor-qianlong-letter-george-iii-1793\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong>The Emperor&#8217;s response to British King George III<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Since all the Chinese buildings were made of wood, nearly nothing remained of this vast imperial paradise after 3500 British and French troops stole about 1.5 million objects totaling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=j5BNLox-7IU\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">$144 Billion worth of Chinese art<\/span><\/a>, shipped it to Europe, and then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/magazines\/post-magazine\/long-reads\/article\/2181613\/beijings-old-summer-palace-computer-modelling\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">torched all structures in 1860<\/span><\/a>. The 3-day looting and burning of Yuanmingyuan was ordered very deliberately by the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Benjamin_Disraeli\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">British Government<\/span><\/a>. It was the largest cultural destruction ever done by humans in recorded history:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2023%20pics\/Summer%20palace%20value.jpg\" width=\"222\" height=\"225\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">It was a shocking act of cultural vandalism, and vengeance for the killing of British envoys, who wanted to enforce their right to sell opium to the people of China in exchange for their much desired tea, silk, and porcelain. With already a huge number of addicts from opium forcefully exported from British India, the Emperor had to decline the &quot;offer&quot;.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The best visual record of this imperial paradise is found in a set of paintings: the <a href=\"https:\/\/visualizingcultures.mit.edu\/garden_perfect_brightness\/ymy1_essay03.html\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">&ldquo;40 Scenes&rdquo;<\/span><\/a> in Yuanmingyuan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Replica-Old-Summer-Palace-complex.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"215\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">A US$5 billion <a href=\"http:\/\/www.china.org.cn\/photos\/2015-05\/06\/content_35499583.htm\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">replica<\/span><\/a> of the entire Old Summer Palace complex was built as a full size copy in the vast gardens of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qldxpJ5oyxo\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Hengdian World Studios<\/span><\/a>, the world&#8217;s largest filming site, dwarfing Universal + Paramount studios combined, providing sets for Chinese <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FYcOeVZ8gPI\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Dynastic films<\/span><\/a> and over 300 episodes\/wk of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QbobOBqblhk\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">TV dramas<\/span><\/a>, located in the eastern Zhejiang Province, about 1000 km South from Beijing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">It has also copies of most sections of Beijing&rsquo;s Forbidden City.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">It covers 8000 acres, and contains over 100 gardens. It is a village of over 200.000 people, including 50.000 actors, and one of China&#8217;s most popular tourist destinations, with over 50.000 visitors\/day.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/userfiles\/image\/2020%20pics\/Full-size-replica-Old-summer-Palace.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"201\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">Where Immortals Once Resided in Myth: <br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Penglai,_Yantai\"><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">Penglai Sanxian Mountain Scenic Area<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"280\" height=\"155\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rE_c6vz3hOE?si=_JRehSzQUDyNjdrf\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"280\" height=\"155\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0TqoHHto0RA?si=F9NcguDp6Axm2czb\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\">The destroyers of Imperial China<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"?p=1045\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana;\"><strong><span style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 255);\">read more &#8230;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summer Palaces Qingyiyuan, Gardens of Clear Ripples, the Summer Palace with Kunming lake Around 1749, the Qianlong Emperor decided to build a summer palace in the vicinity of Jar Hill to celebrate the 60th birthday of his mother, Empress Dowager Chongqing. Longevity Hill is about 60 m-high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c2creset.ondigit.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}