Remains of razed rice fields discovered in the Old Summer

The remains of a razed royal rice field and its related buildings have been discovered in the northern section of Yuanmingyuan Park, or the Old Summer Palace in China, during a recent archaeological excavation, providing new materials for the study of agricultural technology and imperial garden architecture during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Completed in the fifth year of the Yongzheng Emperor (1727), the site is one of the 40 scenic spots in the royal garden.The main building found in the ruins used to be a great hall with a plan resembling the Chinese character “Tian” (田), or "field."

Since 2020, researchers have been conducting archaeological excavations at the DanboNingjing site.Archaeologists believe the site was razed during the sacking of Yuanmingyuan in 1860 by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War (1856-60), but further study is still underway.