Yuanming Yuan, Beijing

Yuanming Yuan (Old Summer Palace), Beijing


Yuanming Yuan, or Garden of Perfect Brightness, was a collection of gardens in Beijing. These were merged into one by the Qianlong emperor of the Qing Dynasty during the mid 18th century. The emperor commissioned the Jesuits to design for him a complex of European-style buildings for the gardens. The Jesuits created what they regarded as Beijing's response to Versailles.

What you can see today looks more like Beijing's response to Ancient Athens. Most of the buildings at Yuanming Yuan are now in ruins. The traditional Chinese structures were destroyed by British and French troops during the Seconde Opium War in 1860. The European-styled ones were pulled down by the locals who spirited the material away for their own use.

Apart from the jumble of marble blocks and stones, the rest of the garden comprises lakes, pavilions and walkways.

How to reach Yuanming Yuan

Take the subway to the Xizhi Men station, then take bus 375. The garden is open from 7:00 am to 6:30 pm daily.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

 Share your travels and/or ask a travel-related question

Join the Penang Travel Tips Facebook Group to share photos, tips and anything related to your travels, or ask travel-related questions.

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.