At the current site of the Yunamingyuan, or the "Old Summer Palace", it's hard to imagine the area and its treasures in their original glory. Since the palace's destruction by the united armies of Britain and France in 1860, the imperial gardens have been known primarily as a forest park, but thanks to a large-scale restoration effort currently underway at the park, visitors to the area will be able to get a new view of the palace's storied history.
150 years after the garden's razing, the China Culture Relics Protection Foundation and the School of Archaeology and Museology are now mounting a large-scale restoration effort that will unveil several artifacts to the public for the first time and even give visitors a first-hand glimpse of the restoration process.
Getting to close relics
During the Qing Dynasty, the emperor Kang Xi presented the impressive, 3.4-square-kilometer gardens as a gift to his fourth son, Yong Zheng, in the early 18th century. In the years following, it was expanded and rebuilt several times until it was ransacked and burned in 1860. Although the emperor Tong Zhi planned to rebuild the palace, the financial burden prevented him. Not long after, it was again ransacked by the Eight United Army in 1900.
But from June 8 to October 18, the cultural relic restoration will be held seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm. Through a window, visitors will be able to observe the ongoing process as experts restore excavated artifacts, and, in a separate interactive zone, they will even be able to experience the excavation process for themselves as experts instruct them in how to dig for and restore buried replicas of artifacts.
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