YuanMingYuan, located in north-west Beijing, is called the Old Summer Palace by tourists to distinguish it from the nearby Summer Palace (颐和园YiheYuan). Actually YuanMingYuan was three separate imperial parks (the Garden of Perfection and Brightness (圆明园Yuanmingyuan) to the west, the Garden of Ten Thousand (Eternal) Springs (万春园Wanchunyuan) to the south and the Garden of Everlasting Spring (长春园Changchunyuan) to the east, all centered around Fuhai, (福海 Lake/Sea of Fortune/Blessings). The latter two gardens were added during the Qianlong Reign. The Garden of Ten Thousand (Eternal) Springs Wanchunyuan was also known as Yichunyuan (怡和园 Garden of Exquisite Spring).

Actually the ruins of present day YuanMingYuan are a bit depressing. This was once a beautiful imperial park, with exquisite gardens, Chinese palaces and Western Baroque buildings, treasures of art and cultural relics and an imperial library of irreplaceable books. It was plundered and razed to the ground by Anglo-French forces in 1860 under the order of Lord Elgin (James Bruce 1811-1863), son of the British prick who stole and vandalised the "Elgin Marbles" from the Parthenon in Athens. All of this is described by various signs (many in English) on the site

Under the order of Premier Zhou Enlai, Yuanmingyuan became a park to remind the Chinese and the world of the destruction wrought by European colonial powers to a harmless and priceless cultural entity that rightly belongs to mankind. The only surviving building was Zhengjuesi (正觉寺 Enlightenment Temple) at the southern part in Wanchunyuan. The other remains are the broken marble columns, some at the Peking University campus and the Beijing Library courtyard.

There has been ongoing restoration, including a huge lake, and a smaller version of Yangmigyuan has been constructed in Shenyang in the northern Liaoning Province. The area is only 2000 square meters with numerous buildings, scenic sites and bridges. However, the largest building was reduced to a tenth of the original size. If Shenyang is too far, one can always visit Shezhen to see a replica of the European baroque palaces and fountains. Shenzhen is just two hours from Hong Kong or Guangzhou.

Lastly, what happened to those Yaunmingyuan artifacts stolen from China? The Yuanmingyuan fountain had twelve animal heads sprouting water from their mouths. In April and May 2000, three heads, the ox, monkey and tiger, were auctioned by Sotheby and Christie in the face of widespread protests from Chinese worldwide. However, they were bought for US $3.8 million by a Beijing company called Poly Group, which out of patriotism, had them housed in a museum. The animal heads were also sent on exhibition tours to various cities in China. Beside these three returned animal heads, the remaining ones are in France, Japan and Taiwan, plus some unaccounted for.

But to return to today I really enjoyed our visit. The ruins are a small section only but the trees and gardens, especially the extensive lakes full of lotus flowers, are superb. Because we went in Golden Week there were elaborate and colourful decorations everywhere. I loaned Meixin on of my cameras and she had a ball. It was a wonderful day.

(See http://www.chinapage.com/friend/goh/beijing/yuanmingyuan/yuanmingyuan.html)

Golden Week
Like many things in China this apparently simple concept has a complex explanation. Golden Week (黄金周) in the mainland of the People's Republic of China is the name given to three annual 7-day national holidays, first implemented in 2000:
The "Spring Festival (or Chinese Lunar New Year) Golden Week" begins in January or February.
The "Labour Day Golden Week" begins on May 1st (May Day).
The "National Day Golden Week" begins on October 1st (which is also the day in 1949 that Mao Zedong proclaimed the PRC from the steps of the Forbidden City).

An article in the International Herald Tribune stated that a review committee that is reviewing the new plan for public holidays posted it for public comment in November 2007, with the intention of implementing it in early 2008. According to this article, the May Day holiday will be reduced to one day, with new one-day holidays for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Qingming Festival. The Spring Festival and National Day would remain three-day holidays, though they would be adjusted to prevent them from becoming seven consecutive days, as is the current practice. Whether this will affect the 2008 Spring Festival has not been announced.

The upshot of all this was that my plans to take Meixin to Sichuan in National Golden Week had to be abandoned because everything was booked out. We spent the week exploring the sights of Beijing and I for one enjoyed myself.