Old Summer Palace - Aftermath

Aftermath

Following this cultural catastrophe, the Imperial Court relocated to the Forbidden City, where it stayed until 1922, when the Last Emperor, Puyi, was expelled by a republican army. Empress Dowager Cixi built the Summer Palace (頤和園 - "The Garden of Nurtured Harmony") near the Old Summer Palace, but on a much smaller scale than the Old Summer Palace.

Only the European-style palaces survived the fire since, unlike the Chinese-style structures, they were made of stone. A few ruined stones of these European buildings still stand on the site today; this has misled some visitors to believe wrongly that the Old Summer Palace was made up only of European-style buildings.

A few Chinese-style buildings in the outlying Elegant Spring Garden also survived the fire. The Chinese imperial court restored these buildings and tried to rebuild the whole complex of the Imperial Gardens, but was unable to raise the money and resources due to the difficult situation of China at the time. In 1900, many of the buildings had survived or had been restored were burnt for good by the expeditionary forces sent to quell the Boxer Rebellion.

Most of the site was left abandoned and used by local farmers as agricultural land. Only in the 1980s was the site reclaimed by the government and turned into an historical site. This led to debates of the 1990s surrounding restoration and development issues and a more recent environmental controversy brought a new political life to the park as it became a symbol of China's "national wound."