A woman and her grandson at the ruins in Yuanmingyuan Partk. Photo: Li Hao/GT

 
Yuanmingyuan Park, the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, opened for free on Monday to commemorate the sack when Anglo-French Alliance Forces burned the palace into ruins after massive looting and destruction 161 years ago.

Tens of thousands of tourists came to the park, once the most magnificent palace in the golden age of Qing Dynasty for sightseeing on Monday, the 161st anniversary of the slack of Yuanmingyuan Park. 

When asked the history of the Second Opium War during which British and French empires sent troops to invade China in 1960, a 15-year-old student surnamed Luo from southwest China's Chongqing told the Global Times in the park that it is necessary to set the anniversary of the sack of Yuanmingyuan Park

It can help people who haven't personally experienced that humiliating moments, especially young students to have deeper impressions and inspire patriotic feelings, he said.

Wei Xiaoming, a businessman at 55 said that the sack of Yuanmingyuan Park is indeed National humiliation, hoping the park can be rebuilt, but the money should be paid by western invaders.

The hashtag "161st anniversary of the sack of Yuanmingyuan Park" had become a hot topic on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo,with nearly 70 million views and discussion as of press time.

One netizen said that Chinese poeple show cherish what we have accomplished today and work together and harder to create better future. "Memorize the history and do not forget this humiliation. Invigorate the Chinese nation!" many netizens commented. 

On November 13, 2019, a long-lost bronze horse-head was returned to the motherland after Macao-based tycoon and collector Stanley Ho Hung-sun donated it to the Chinese National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA). The horse-head is just one Chinese relic out another 1 million from the Yuanmingyuan stolen and looted by western invaders, according to the statistics of UNESCO.

There is also a debate circulating among Chinese academics and society for years over whether the Yuanmingyuan Park should be restored to original splendor or remain unchanged in the current ruinous state. 

National Cultural Heritage Administration said no to rebuild the palace in November last year, insisting the ruins witness the history of China once being invaded and colonized, with the broken walls warning Chinese people not to forger the national humiliation.

Photo: Li Hao/GT