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China Restores Smaller Sized Yuanmingyuan
China has completed the construction of a smaller Yuanmingyuan, or the imperial Round and Bright Garden, according to its original image.
The new garden was built in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, hundreds kilometers away from the ruined site in Beijing.
Yuanmingyuan was a summer palace of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty. Known as "the Garden of Gardens", it embraced the country 's most beautiful buildings and contained numerous historical documents.
After being plundered and burned out by British and French troops in 1860, the garden has been always a symbol of the country 's humiliation imposed by Westerners.
The restoration of Yuanmingyuan has been a hotly disputed issue through the 1990s. Many people hold that the country should maintain its ruined face so to arouse the visitors' patriotic sentiment.
However, a lot of people say the garden should be given a facelift to attract more tourists, who want to enjoy the miracle's authentic beauty.
The Shenyang version is believed to be the garden's first copy.
Covering a space of 2,000 square meters, it has fully restored the garden's grandeur by including 20,000 buildings, 1,000 scenic spots, 100 bridges and other ancient-style constructions.
Li Qinghua, general manager of the Shenyang Oriental Arts Center, the designer of the mini garden, said that the largest building is 1/10 of the original size.
He said that the job has been done in the past 15 years with an investment of 10 million yuan (1.2 million U.S. dollars).
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