brappy!

labyrinth, originally uploaded by brappy!.

The old Summer Palace at Yuanmingyuan is haunting and beautiful. It's certainly one of the most interesting things that I have seen in a long time. The palace was originally built in a mostly Chinese style during the early Qing dynasty around 1750. The palace was continually expanded until 1860, when it was sacked by British and French troops (along with quite a few locals, apparently), and burned to the ground.
Since traditional Chinese palaces were built of wood, those parts are long gone. What remains, however, is the European-style ruins, which are quite bizarre - a mixture of rococo Italian and French styles of classical architecture with some distinct Chinese influences.
Set amongst large ponds filled with water lilies, the entire space is relaxing and beautiful and quite haunting when viewed a certain way.
I took the opportunity to visit it twice, once on a weekend afternoon when it was hot and crowded and again on a weekday morning when it was much more quiet. If you're in Beijing, skip 頤和園 - Yiheyuan - The "New" Summer Palace and instead, head to the old one. It's more real and far more fascinating.

More photos are in this set: Yuanmingyuan.