Old Summer Palace

Today we went to The Old Summer Palace. This site is even larger than The Summer Palace. It contains three different scenic areas and many large lakes and bridges. However, the whole sights has been destroyed a long time ago, so all that remains are ruins. You can find out more if you continue reading.

The Old Summer Palace

One of the many lakes of the gardens

The Old Summer Palace, Yuan Ming Yuan, is located several kilometers away from the new one. As already said in the introduction, not much of the site remains. Therefore, the major attractions is the part of the park where ruins of the European style buildings reside. A through-ticket will give you also access to that part and, additionally, to a large maquette which shows how the park would have looked like.

Maze

As said, the major tourist attraction is the part of the park with the still recognizable ruins. It is the part of the park where in the olden days the European styled buildings were present. The ruins are maybe not that interesting, though it gives you a good view on the splendor the whole Summer Palace must have had. In this same area, the maze has been rebuilt. It is quite funny to see how grandma is lifted over the (quite low) walls as it takes to long to find the way herself.

All in all, you can walk a couple of hours here though it can get quite boring after a while; all you see are lakes, bridges, and piles of rocks. I think that it is well worth the visit, but if you are in a hurry maybe this one can be skipped.

The maquette

Ruins of the European style houses