Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden
2 min readYuanmingyuan Imperial Garden consists of Yuanming Garden, Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden in western suburbs of Beijing. Three royal gardens were hailed as “Crown of All Gardens”. In the history of the global garden construction, they occupy an important position. Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden covers a total area of 3.47 square kilometers. Its layout centers on the largest “Fuhai” Lake, and forms an inverted shape of the character “pin”. In the entire garden, 150 inner gardens with dif ferent styles at dif ferent sizes. Interspersed in these small gardens, there are various buildings, lakes at varying sizes, tortuous waterways and high or low mounds. In carefully arranged landscape environment, the whole garden is linked into a harmonious and natural whole.
Imperial Gardens of the Qing Dynasty
Imperial gardens of the Qing Dynasty are mainly concentrated in Beijing and Chengde. Many of them are based on the natural landscape. Construction of ponds and rockery pays great attention to the close cooperation with the existing topography, and widely absorbs architectural features of the south region, north region and the minority. Imperial gardens of the Qing Dynasty show beautiful and digni f ed style on the whole.
Construction and destruction of Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden
Yuanming Garden was firstly built among Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden. It started in the 48th year of Kangxi Period (1709), expanded in the 3rd year of Yongzheng Period (1725) and basically f nished in the 9th year of Qianlong Period (1744). Until the 37th year of Qianlong Period (1772), Changchun Garden and Qichun Garden took shape. In Jiaqing Period and Xianfeng Period, the whole Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden expanded and achieved even more exquisite perfection. In these 150 years, Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden crystallized countless Chinese craftsmen’s meticulous ef forts and the wealth of the Qing Dynasty in the heyday . Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden was hailed as “Crown of All Gardens”. However , in 1860, British and French invaders set f re and burned Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden in order to conceal the looting and revenge. So many cultural treasures were looted. Up to now, only ruins and falling walls stand under the sunset, and remind people with past glory.
