It was a wonderful experience ! The Great Wall is awesome... and judie was a masterful guide, wonderful !! John was an excellent driver, very crusteruo. Thank you for setting up such a great tour. Susie Was a Great Guide. Give us EveryThing We Wanted to Know. All Arrangement Went Smooth. Mr.Judie Was Good Driver. He Help Everyone In & Out of Van, Good Restaurant & Hotel service. Anton Christopher Grindl
Yuanmingyuan (Garden of perfect Brightness) was first built in 1707 and expanded under the supervision of five emperors of the Qing Dynasty for over 150 years. The garden is reputed throughout the world by its enchanting charms and relation with Chinese modern history. It was extolled as the "Garden of Gardens".
Introduction of Yuanmingyuan Park(Old Summer Palace)
Located in the northern part of Haidian District in Beijing, Yuanmingyuan (Garden of perfect Brightness) is also called the Old Summer Palace by Western tourists, and is distinguished from the Summer Palace in this way.
The Yuanmingyuan Park covers a total area of 350 acres and the architecture area of 160, 000 square meters, 10,000 square meters larger than the Forbidden City.
Yuanmingyuan was a royal garden in the Qing Dynasty. The Emperors Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng were used to live in the garden for entertainment. They also assembled officials and dealt with the national affairs here. The garden and the forbidden city were all the national political center at that time.
Helper to visit YuanMingYuan Garden
Address in English : No.28 Qinghua West Road, Haidian District, Beijing
Address in Chinese : 北京市海淀区清华西路28号
Tel : 86-10-62543673
Post code : 100084
Ticket time : 07:00-19:00(April-October), 07:00-17:30(November-March of next year)
Open time : 06:00-21:00(April-October), 06:30-19:30(November-March of next year)
Closing time :
Location : YuanMingYuan Garden is around 18 km to downtown beijing
Transportation
Public bus: 320, 319, 801, 331, 690, 696
Subway: Take Subway Line 4 and get off at at Yuanmingyuan Station.
Private car is the best method to visit YuanMingYuan Garden with local tour operator.
Admission
high season : 25 RMB/person.
shoulder season : 25 RMB/person.
low season : 25 RMB/person.
History of Yuanmingyuan Park
The construction of the park buildings started in the 18th year of Emperor Kangxi in Qing Dynasty (1709A.D.), went through six emperors and finally finished building of Yuanmingyuan Park, Chang Chun Garden, and Wan Chun Garden, after more than 150 years. These three gardens are often referred to as a joint name: The Yuanmingyuan Park.
Old Summer Palace or Yuanmingyuan (Garden of perfect Brightness) failed to escape the destruction inflicted on China by the Western powers. In October 1860, the Anglo-French forces sacked and looted Yuanmingyuan and burned it to the ground. From then on, the garden suffered continual damage at the hands of the warlords, bandits, and the Eight-Power Allied Forces. Its former beauty and glory no more, the entire garden lay in clusters of ruins and debris. In hushed silence it bore witness to the atrocities of the Western powers and the corruption and incompetence of the Qing rulers, and admonished the Chinese people never to forget the tragedy.
After the birth of the People's Republic, the Chinese government has attached great importance to the preservation of the ruins. The municipal governments have placed Yuanmingyuan on a list of key cultural sites under special protection. Most of the building foundations have been unearthed, and the remains of over a dozen scenic rock formations duly preserved. The existing carved marble masonry of the European Palaces has been pieced together to become a tourist attraction in its own right.
In November 1979, the Yuanmingyuan History Exhibition Center was formally inaugurated, to the delight of visitors from at home and abroad. By 1997 the center had received more than 9.8 million visitors.
The eastern half of the garden has gradually taken shape, where a number of scenic areas are open to tourists, such as the fuhai Scenic Area, the eastern part of Qichunyuan, and the European Palaces of Changchunyuan. The park has also become the venue for a series of annual festivals. Including the Spring Outing Festival, the Lotus Flower Festival, and the Chrysanthemum Festival.
It is because there is an unredeemed and cruel history about the Yuanmingyuan Park, today, more and more tourists from all over the world come here to pay a visit. No matter what kind of feeling you have visiting the Yuanmingyuan Park, pondering the past, cherishing the memory in mind, or with curiosity, it is quite special and different from visiting other scenery.
Question or Comment
Former Layout and Architecture
Yuanmingyuan is composed of three comparatively independent but interconnected gardens: Yuanmingyuan (Garden of perfect Brightness), Changchunyuan (Garden of Eternal Spring), and Qichunyuan (Garden of Blossoming Spring).
The Yuanmingyuan Park covers a total area of 350 acres and the architecture area of 160, 000 square meters, 10,000 square meters larger than the Forbidden City. Inside the Yuanmingyuan Park, bridges are everywhere, about 100 bridges. Scenic spots are all over, with more than 100 beautiful sights. Buildings with carved beams and painted rafters, pavilions, studios are in various shapes and in different sizes, which made of splendid materials.
There are about 200 man-made mountains in the park with professionally designed cliffs, stones, and deep valleys by horticulturists. There are also large sections of ponds, the Grand Tai Lake, the winding streams and rivers. Some ponds are connected and some are independent. The water area occupies half area of the Yuanmingyuan Park.
Multifarious architects are scattered in the special designed mountains and lakes, as beautiful as paintings. Many spots of the Yuanmingyuan Park imitate famous mountains and lakes or well-known gardens in South China. Curios and art works are numerous, which is like an art museum with all the gardens and collections in the world.
Yuanmingyuan (Garden of perfect Brightness) was first built in 1707 and expanded under the supervision of five emperors of the Qing Dynasty for over 150 years. The garden is reputed throughout the world by its enchanting charms and relation with Chinese modern history. It was extolled as the "Garden of Gardens".
Located over an area of about seven hectares in the north part of Changchunyuan, Xiyanglou is China's first replica European-style garden, consisting of over ten Western-style palaces and yards, such as Xieqiqu (Harmonious Wonder), Huanghuazhen (Labyrinth), Yangquelong (Aviary), Fangwaiguan (Belvedere), Haiyantang (Hall of National Peace), Yuanyingguan (Immense Ocean Observatory), Dashuifa (Grand Waterworks), Guan Shuifa (Throne for Viewing the Waterworks), and Xianfashan (Hell of Perspective).
This garden was designed by F.Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), an Italian missionary, and P.Michael Benoist (1715-1774) from France, and constructed by Chinese artisans under their supervision. Planning started in 1747 (12th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign). In the fall of 1751, the first waterworks, Xieqiqu, were completed. The Labyrinth in the east was built from 1756 to 1759. And in 1783, the magnificent Yuany6ingguan was finally added.
Twenty copperplates of the European Palaces were made by court artisans in its heyday, according to the sketches made by a court painter, Yi Lantai. Each was 58 cm high and 93 cm wide.
Parts of these stone buildings survived the fire of 1860, and still stand today as a reminder of the national tragedy.
Between 1977 and 1992, the ruins of the Xiyanglou garden were redone: the foundations cleaned up, the fountains repaired, the surviving pillars and stones restored, and the Labyrinth rebuilt.
Located to the east of Haiyantang, and at the meeting point of the north-south axis of Changchunyuan and the east-west axis of the European Palaces, this site was the most spectacular scene of Western-style fountains in the garden, where the British envoy George Macartney visited in 1793.
Dashuifa, facing south, was a group of fountains with a shrine-shaped structure in the background. In an oval pond was a hunting scene: a deer, whose horns sprayed water, was chased by a group of hounds, whose mouths shot water in the direction of their prey-with 13-layer fountain pyramids on both sides, this presented a magnificent display. To the south of Dashuifa was Guan Shuifa, which consisted of a throne facing north for the emperor to admire the Grand Waterworks, and a carved, curving stone screen. These two structures were both built around 1759.
Yuangyingguan, to the north of Dashuifa, was a large building in the shape of a Western bell tower, built in 1783. The doors and windows were inlaid with 1,206 pieces of glass. The building was supported by over ten tall, White marble pillars, among which the most beautiful were the two supporting the central arched gate. They were both carved in detail from top to bottom in patterns of hanging grapes with life-like vines and leaves.
Much weathered after more than a century, the surviving carved pillars, stone shrine and screen still look distinctive and impressive. This site is a must-see for visitors.
Cultural Value of Yuanmingyuan Park
Yuanmingyuan was also an imperial museum with a vast collection of cultural treasures. The French writer Victor Hugo once remarked, "With all its treasures, Notre Dame in Paris is no match for Yuanmingyuan, that enormous and magnificent museum in the East." Furniture made of red sandalwood decorated the numerous halls in which countless rare cultural relics were on display. As one of the four most famous imperial libraries, the Wenyuan Hall (Hall of Literary Profundity) in the garden originally housed such precious ancient books as The Complete Library of Four Branches of Book, Gems of the Complete Library of Four Branches of Books, and The Completed Collection of Graphs and Writings of Ancient and Modern Time.