ABC Wednesday - Y

Once again I have to bring you back in time. A family visit to Beijing was of course mandatory when staying in Asia mid 90s. I will tomorrow give you some of the photos taken in this ancient city, but on this ABC Wednesday is for Y, I give you a small taste.
First the Old Summer Palace

Y is for YuanMingYuan, (圓明園)


YuanMingYuan was a large imperial park of three separate parks viz. the Garden of Perfection and Brightness (圓明園Yuanmingyuan) to the west, the Garden of Ten Thousand (Eternal) Springs (萬春園Wanchunyuan) to the south and the Garden of Everlasting Spring (長春園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 (怡和園 Garden of Exquisite Spring).

Anyone who appreciates beauty and human enterprise will be outraged when they visit the present YuanMingYuan. 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 the barbaric Anglo-French forces in 1860 under the order of Lord Elgin (James Bruce 1811-1863), son of the famous British lover of Greek art who stole the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens.
The other Y this week is the "new" Summer Palace

Y is for YiheYuan (頤和園)

The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750. As Yuan Ming Yuan the garden was heavily damaged in 1860. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy (Beiyang Fleet), into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.The long Promenade (750 m long) is covered with almost 1500 beautiful paintings at the ceiling (originally 546). CiXi was carried through this corridor in bad weather.External photos:
The Marble Boat (boat of Purity and Ease) was restored by Empress Dowager as a tribute to the money she took from the navy for the rebuilding of the park.
Perhaps the bridges should be used for the "Bridges" meme, but the Jade Belt Bridge and the Bridge of Floating Hearts must be part of the ABC Wednesday post:
For more ABC Wednesday proposals, see Mrs Nesbitts place