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The Old Summer Palace (), known in Chinese as Yuanmingyuan (lit. "Gardens of Perfect Brightness"), and originally called the Imperial Gardens (), was a complex of palaces and gardens in Beijing. It is located northwest of the walls of the Imperial City and was built in the 18th and early 19th century as the place where the emperors of the Qing dynasty resided and handled government affairs (the Forbidden City was used for formal ceremonies). The Old Summer Palace was known for its extensive collection of garden and building architectures and other works of art (a popular name in China was the "Garden of Gardens", ). Nearby and to the south was an extensive imperial hunting park known as "Nanyuan". 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 delegation sent for negotiation was 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 and French troops.〔 ==Overview== The Imperial Gardens at the Old Summer Palace were made up of three gardens: #Garden of Perfect Brightness proper () #Garden of Eternal Spring () #Elegant Spring Garden () Together, they covered an area of , almost five times the size of the Forbidden City grounds and eight times the size of the Vatican City. Hundreds of structures, such as halls, pavilions, temples, galleries, gardens, lakes and bridges, stood on the grounds. In addition, hundreds of examples of Chinese artwork and antiquities were stored in the halls, along with unique copies of literary works and compilations. Several famous landscapes of southern China had been reproduced in the Imperial Gardens. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Old Summer Palace」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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