Yuan Ming 'Yuan, located on the western outskirts of Beijing, is adjacentto the Summer Palace. First built in the 46th year of the reign of Emperor Kongxi ( 1707) , it is composed of three gardens, i. e. Yuanmingyuan, Changchunyuan and Qichunyuan, with an area of 350 hectares, including a water area of 140 hectares. It has over one hundred landscape gardens, with a total building area of over 160,000 square meters. It was a large imperial garden built and managed by the emperors of the Gting Dynasty over 150 years. It inherited the excellent gardening traditions of over three thousand years in China and integrated the garden architecture of different styles, as can be reflected by the fact that it had the splendour and grandeur of the imperial structures and the serenity and gracefulness of gardens in the waterside towns in South China, and assimilated some elements from the European garden architecture. Yuan Ming Yuan used to be well-known in the world for its vast land scale, remarkable building techniques, elegant architectural groups, abundant cultural collections and profound national cultural connotations. It was reputated as "model of all gardening arts" and "Garden of Gardens". Unfortunately, this world-known garden was sacked and burned to the ground by the Anglo-French forces in October, 1860 and was later plundered and looted for many times. Consequently, the grand garden fell into ruins. Now, with the relics as the theme, Yuan Ming Yuan has formed a unique tourist scenery in combination with the history and vigorous atmosphere of the garden, having an important political and historical value as well as being a rare tourist resort.