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The Ruins of Yuanming
Garden
3/14/2003
In September 1860, an allied
Anglo-French force broke down China's coastal defense and pushed their way
to Beijing the Chinese capital.
This was during what came to be
known as the Second Opium War, fought by Britain and France against China
to pry open the isolationist ancient eastern empire for European
commercial interests. Twenty years earlier Great Britain had attacked
China alone, on the charge that the Chinese authorities had confiscated
properties of British merchants – opium – which the Britons were smuggling
into China for profits. The ailing Chinese empire was easily defeated in
that war and had to settle the conflict by paying a heavy indemnity,
conceding the island of Hong Kong to Britain, and opening a number of
Chinese ports for foreign trade. In 1856, disputes with the Chinese
government emerged again and Britain, this time joined by France, sent an
expeditionary force of over 20,000 to China, to compel the Chinese to
agree to more concessions, which included the legalization of the trade in
opium. Chinese resistance was crushed and the allied forces reached
Beijing in September 1960.
In October 1960, while negotiations with
the Chinese government went on to settle the war, British troops stationed
outside Beijing looted an imperial garden northwest of Beijing. The
garden, known as Yuanming Yuan, was first constructed in 1709, initially
as a residential garden for a prince. In its completed form, the garden
occupied 347 acres of land, featuring lakes, hills, and architecture that
combined traditional Chinese style and some European influence - the
latter was a rare sight in China then. At the time when it was looted in
1860, Yuanming garden was an exclusive imperial estate, where a
considerable amount of precious items had been kept. It was said that when
one British officer later auctioned off his share of the plunder from the
garden, he received over 90,000 dollars in payment. After their raid, the
troops set fire to the garden and burned it to the ground. Today the
garden is still there, but not much of it is left to see except ruins of a
few buildings.
Below are a few pictures of Yuanming Yuan taken some
time after its destruction.
