Garden party

You might be surprised to find picturesque ruins of European-style buildings in the northern outskirts of Beijing.

No, you haven't walked into an 18th century Romantic painting, or the setting of a poem by Lord Byron.

You've come instead to Yuanmingyuan ("Garden of Perfect Brightness"), the famous royal garden built during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), also known as the Old Summer Palace.