Yuanmingyuan, built in the Qing Dynasty, stand in a quiet section of the suburbs of Beijing to the northwest of Qinghua University. This "garden of gardens" was made up of the Perfection and Light (Yuanmingyuan), and the Garden of Ten Thousand Spring times (Wanchunyuan).
The grounds had a circumference of 10 kilometers and occupied an area of more than 347 hectares. Of the hundreds of large and small buildings, which once stood here, all that remains are a few ruins in stone, a sorry reminder of past greatness. Visitors can now stroll about the ruins and view the remains of the following sites: "Vista of the Square Teapot" is honored as the most fantastic building in Yuanmingyuan, and now a few fired beam-columns left; the Magnanimity of the Seas and Hills in the West Lake of the Garden of Eternal Spring is a complex of buildings where long long ago was an attraction well-known for its beautiful peach blossom; Sravasti City, modeled after the capital of the ancient Indian state of Kosala, which was a repository for statues of the Buddha. The ruins of the high walls of this "city" can still be traced today; the Source of Culture Pavilion (Wenyuange), which housed the collection of books known as the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature.
The splendor of the garden, once the private playground of emperors, has been opened to visitors from all over the world. You might as well have a visit and recollect the unforgettable history, as well as what it lefts. |
