Workers pull weeds at the Yuanying Guan ruins at Yuanmingyuan, or Old Summer Palace, in preparation for a project to preserve the standing pillars. （Photo by Yuan Yi/For China Daily）
Yuanying Guan was a villa that belonged to one of Qianlong's favorite concubines.
According to historical records, it featured 1,206 pieces of colored glass, which are depicted in Western paintings.
As most wooden architecture in Yuanmingyuan was burned during the military vandalization in 1860, the surviving stone components of Yuanying Guan have become the most recognizable icons of Yuanmingyuan for Chinese people.
For a long time, the style of the ruins gave the general public an incorrect impression that Yuanmingyuan was a European-style garden. However, large-scale archaeological excavations all over Yuanmingyuan in recent years have gradually unveiled a panoramic facade from underground.
"Everyone sees Yuanying Guan in their school textbooks," Liu said. "It is also used as the logo of our park. Its cultural and historical significance is great, although it represents only a very small part of Yuanmingyuan.
"What we're doing is prevent potential hazards in the future. If the columns really collapsed, the loss would be irreversible."
The area will not be closed during the renovation, he said.
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