Western mansions The Burning of the Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden
1 min readThe Imperial Gardens at the Old Summer Palace were made up of three gardens:The Garden of Perfect Brightness proper，the Garden of Eternal Spring and the Elegant Spring Garden.Together，they covered an area of 3.5 square kilometres，almost five times the size of the Forbidden City grounds and eight times the size of Vatican City.
Hundreds of structures，such as halls，pavilions，temples，galleries，gardens，lakes and bridges stood on the grounds.In addition，hundreds of examples of Chinese artwork and antiquities were stored in the halls，along with unique copies of literary works and compilations.Several famous landscapes of southern China had been reproduced in the Imperial Gardens.
Western mansions
The most visible architectural remains of the Old Summer Palace can be found in the Western mansions section of 18th centuryEuropean-style palaces，fountains and waterworks and formal gardens.
The designers of these structures built of stone were the Jesuits Giuseppe Castiglione and Michel Benoist，who were employed by the Qianlong emperor to satisfy his taste for exotic buildings and objects.
However，the European-style buildings only occupied an area along the back of the Eternal Spring Garden that was small compared to the overall area of the gardens.More than 95%of the Imperial Gardens were made up of Chinese-style buildings.There were also a few buildings in Tibetan and Mongol styles，reflecting the diversity of the Qing Empire.
