Yuanmingyuan

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Yuanmingyuan is commonly known as the old summer palace. Compared with the Summer Palace we visited earlier, there are much less tourists here. All that we saw were ruins of what used to be the "Xi Yang Men", which literally translates to "European gate". Curiously and sadly, they do not provide any brochures or pamphlets for the places of interests. Without a tour guide, all the ruins would mean nothing. It is difficult to envision the splendour of the place but yet you can help wondering what happened to all the treasures that were looted from the place!

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Photos

Brief Intro
This place was looted and burned by the army from the western countries.

Ruins of Xi Yang Men
Much of the architecture of the place has been burned. The "Xi Yang Men" remained only because it was constructed using large blocks of stone. Even in its ruined state, one could discern what used to be marble steps.