The Old Summer Palace is often associated with the European-style palaces built of stone. The designers of these structures were employed by Emperor Qianlong to satisfy his taste for exoticbuildings and objects.
It took 3,500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze, taking three days to burn. The Palace was plunderedand burned twice, . The first time was in 1860 by French and British army forces, and only 13 royal buildings survived to remain intact, most of them in the remote areas or by the lake side. The second time was in 1900 during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion, and nothing remained this time.
