Apart from the main imperial palace,
Chinese dynasties also had several other imperial palaces in the capital city where the empress, crown prince, or other members of the imperial family dwelled. There also existed palaces outside of the capital city called "away palaces" (離宮) where the emperors resided when traveling.
Imperial gardens The habit also developed of building garden estates in the countryside surrounding the capital city, where the emperors retired at times to get away from the rigid etiquette of the imperial palace, or simply to escape from the summer heat inside their capital. This practice reached a zenith with the
Qing dynasty, whose emperors built the fabulous Imperial Gardens (御園), now known in China as the
Gardens of Perfect Brightness (圓明園), and better known in English as the
Old Summer Palace. The emperors of the Qing dynasty resided and worked in the Imperial Gardens, 8 km/5 miles outside of the walls of
Beijing, the Forbidden City inside Beijing being used only for formal ceremonies. These gardens were made up of three gardens: the Garden of Perfect Brightness proper, the Garden of Eternal Spring (長春園), and the Elegant Spring Garden (綺春園); they covered a huge area of 3.5 km2 (865 acres), almost 5 times the size of the
Forbidden City, and 8 times the size of the
Vatican City. comprising hundreds of halls, pavilions, temples, galleries, gardens, lakes, etc. Several famous landscapes of southern China had been reproduced in the Imperial Gardens, hundreds of invaluable Chinese art masterpieces and antiquities were stored in the halls, making the Imperial Gardens one of the largest museums in the world. Some unique copies of literary work and compilations were also stored inside the Imperial Gardens. In 1860, during the
Second Opium War, the
British and
French expeditionary forces looted the
Old Summer Palace. Then on October 18, 1860, in order to "punish" the imperial court, which had refused to allow Western embassies inside
Beijing, the British general
Lord Elgin- with protestations from the French - purposely ordered the torching of this massive complex which burned to the ground. It took 3500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze and took three whole days to burn. The burning of the Gardens of Perfect Brightness is still a very sensitive issue in China today. Following this cultural catastrophe, the imperial court was forced to relocate to the old and austere
Forbidden City where it stayed until 1924, when the
Last Emperor was expelled by a republican army. File:Residence dete828.JPG|Foxiang Ge (Tower of Buddhist Incense) at Wanshou Shan (Longevity Hill) File:Vue prise en ballon du Palais Impérial à Pékin.jpg|Aerial view of the Forbidden City (1900–1901). File:Forbiden city-Beijing-China - panoramio (18).jpg|Close-up on the left protruding wing of the Meridian Gate File:ForbiddenCity-59f.JPG|Gate of Manifest Virtue
Summer Palace Empress dowager
Cixi (慈禧太后) built the
Summer Palace or Yiheyuan (頤和園 - "The Garden of Nurtured Harmony") near the
Old Summer Palace, but on a much smaller scale than the Old Summer Palace.
More palaces Some other palaces include: •
Beihai and
Zhongnanhai in
Beijing •
Mukden Palace in
Shenyang •
Mountain Resort at
Chengde •
Taicheng in
Nanjing • Genyue in
Kaifeng • Changle Palace in
Chang'an • Shanglinyuan in
Chang'an • Xingqing Palace in
Chang'an •
Potala Palace in
Lhasa was used by the
Dalai Lama Recently, Chinese archaeologists have announced that they have found the ruins of an ancient Chinese palace in
Dadiwan. ==See also==