The ruins of the Yuen-Ming Yuen

 

In 1747  father Giuseppe Castiglione (S.J.) and father Michel Benoist (S.J.) were asked by the Manchu emperor Qian Long to design the Yuen-Ming Yuen in Beijing.

The Yuen-Ming Yuen stands now as a ruin to blame ignorant foreigners.  In 1860 the beautiful palace was sacked and burned by French and British troops. V.Hugo wrote: "'Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain.”