Winter Palace-Garden of All Gardens

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The Winter Palace consisting of the Yuanming Garden，Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden was completed after 150 years of efforts in the reigns of emperors Kangxi，Yongzheng，Qianlong，Jiaqing（1795-1820），Daoguang（1821-1850）and Xianfeng（1850-1861）never seen in the previous dynasties in China.

All the three gardens of the Winter Palace were waterscape gardens，and most garden landscapes were waterscapes with water as the main theme.

These scenic spots constituted relatively independent small gardens（”gardens in gardens”），interconnected by the river system and roads.Because of techniques such as scenery opposition，scenery borrowing and scenery disclosure，people wandering in them felt as if they were walking naturally from one environment to a completely different environment，and abundant space of”big gardens containing small ones”was shaped.This is the most salient feature of the Winter Palace.As a result，the Winter Palace was reputed as the”garden of all gardens.”

During the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty，the Catholic missionary undertakings were carried out in China and some preachers also took part in the building of the Winter Palace.They designed six 18th century Baroque-style palaces and gardens，commonly called the”western mansions，”

which became a unique sight in the Winter Palace.These western mansions were the first complete work built after European architectural culture spread to China and the first creative attempt to combine the European and Chinese garden systems.

The Winter Palace inherited China’s excellent tradition of garden buildingmore than 3，000 years old，manifesting the elegance of palace buildings and the charm of gardens in the watery region south of the Yangtze River and at the same time absorbing the architecture forms of European gardens and integrating garden buildings of different styles.It was not only known for gardens，but also an imperial museum with a huge collection.The great French writer Victor Hugo（1802-1885）once said，”Even when all the treasures in France were to be put together，it would not match the scale and splendor of this oriental museum.”Unfortunately，this masterpiece of garden art was destroyed by British and French invaders with a fire in the 1oth year of the Xianfeng Period（1860）.Today，only some hills and landforms and a few relics of buildings and stone carvings are left in the ruin.