Emperor's Territory

Last week we stayed at Peking University, where I lived and worked more than 15 years ago, so it was a sort of homecoming. As a matter of fact I stayed in the exact same building as when I was studying Chinese. Right across the street is Yuanmingyuan, a palace garden built for the emperors two centuries ago, but it was destroyed and looted by 8 western countries. Just slightly NW is the Summer Palace, an almost 3 km2 park built in 1750, and also destroyed by foreign powers. Both parks are now major tourist attractions and well worth a visit.