The Ruins of Yuan Ming Garden, Beijing, China

The Yuanming garden, aka Yuanming Yuan, is located in Beijing, China. It was first constructed in 1709, initially as a residential garden for a prince. In its completed form, the garden occupied 347 acres of land, featuring lakes, hills, and architecture that combined traditional Chinese style and some European influence - the latter was a rare sight in China then.

During the Second Opium War, fought by Britain and France against China to pry open the isolationist ancient eastern empire for European commercial interests, Britain joined by France, sent an expeditionary force of over 20,000 to China, to compel the Chinese to agree to more concessions, which included the legalization of the trade in opium. Chinese resistance was crushed and the allied forces reached Beijing in September 1860.

In October 1860, while negotiations with the Chinese government went on to settle the war, British troops stationed outside Beijing looted Yuanming garden northwest of Beijing. At the time when it was looted in 1860, Yuanming garden was an exclusive imperial estate, where a considerable amount of precious items had been kept. It was said that when one British officer later auctioned off his share of the plunder from the garden, he received over 90,000 dollars in payment. After their raid, the troops set fire to the garden and burned it to the ground. Today the garden is still there, but not much of it is left to see except ruins of a few buildings.