Beijing’s Summer Palace is destroyed. British troops occupy Beijing, sack it, and then burn the Yuanmingyuan, the fabulous summer palace built by the Manchu emperors in the 18th century. Shortly thereafter, the Qing Dynasty surrendered to Anglo-French forces, ending the Second Opium War and China’s hopes of reversing foreign domination of its national affairs. Around 1870, Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi began rebuilding the palace and its magnificent gardens, renaming it Yiheyuan, or “Garden of Health and Harmony.” In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, the palace was again burned by Western troops and remained in ruins until the Chinese Communists rebuilt it in the 1950s.
