Advertisement
« previous next »
Changchunyuan  
   

Changchunyuan

Yuanmingyuan, the Old Summer Palace

October 9th 2019
Most people that come to Beijing know of the Summer Palace, which was an imperial garden during the Qing Dynasty. It is a vast and beautiful place. The Old Summer Palace (圆明园/Yuanmingyuan), which is close to the Summer Palace, in contrast is not that well known. A co-worker had been and had enjoyed the place so I decided to give it a visit. It has its own subway station, Yuanmingyuan Park on ... read more
Asia » China » Beijing » Haidian district

Chinese Flag For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more
Advertisement
15th August 2020

Yuanmingyuan...evidence of a Chinese tragedy
This is one of the sites in China that moved Denise & I the most. As I recall in the Opium Wars the European & American armies gave the Chinese a choice that resulted in the Forbidden City being saved and Yuanmingyuan being destroyed. When we were there, just before the Beijing Olympics, there were signs that the Chinese had left the smashed pieces and debris of the marble Grecian and Euro style palaces in their destroyed state as a reminder to the Chinese people of this national tragedy. That is our lasting memory. Was that made evident to you on your visit?
18th August 2020

Thank you for the extra info.
I didn't know that there was a choice about which place to save. It's extremely sad. I feel it was evident, but not too overt, if that makes sense.

Tot: 0.32s; Tpl: 0.004s; cc: 25; qc: 98; dbt: 0.2499s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.4mb