CAFA sets up new research center to study Yuanmingyuan ruins

A new research center has just been set up at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing to boost studies on Yuanmingyuan, or the Old Summer Palace.

Yuanmingyuan, first built in 1707, was a huge imperial resort complex of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The palace in the northwest of Beijing sometimes operated as the imperial palace until it was burned and looted by invading Anglo-French forces in 1860.

The Center for Yuanmingyuan Studies, CAFA, will bring together expertise of the school in architecture, design, fine art history, landscape painting, sculpture, and new media, among other fields, to improve studies of the site. And the results will be used in protection, management, and exhibition of cultural heritage in the Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park.

A digital database of Yuanmingyuan files and 3D images of cultural relics unearthed in the ruins will be built based on the studies.

Yuanmingyuan once housed an abundant royal collection of artworks and antiques, besides its exquisite architecture. But, Li Bo, the director of the administration of the park, says that in-depth and comprehensive studies on the site are still not complete.