The first extensive renovation project of the Yuanmingyuan ever since it was destroyed 150 year ago will be launched this year. This announcement from an official of the Yuanmingyuan Management Department came last week amid debates on how the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan should be preserved.

"This project will focus on the stone carved cultural relics on the site of the European-style garden," said an official from the Cultural Relics Division of the department. "To carry out the renovation of the site a technology from the European countries will be introduced." The project will involve recovery work around some parts of the palace.

With the history of more than two hundred years, Yuanmingyuan was a beautiful imperial park with Chinese palaces and Western Baroque buildings. But it was plundered and razed to the ground by the Anglo- French forces in 1860.

Ruins of Yuanmingyuan

The foundations of the European-style Palaces have been corroding each year with lack of adequate maintenance and preservation measures, while the rains makes things even worse, according to the official.

"Tourists climb up and down the ancient ruins each day which weakens the foundations," the official said. "As these foundations were built with burnt stones, they are too weak to sustain the weight of so many visitors every day."

Late last year several warning lines were set up around the ruins, with the aim of preventing the tourists from climbing the stones and scrawling on them. And early this year, a one-meter tall iron bar was erected instead of these warning lines.

However, people criticized the move saying merely placing an iron bar could not prevent the palace from being ruined by water and air. Also, the bar prevented visitors from enjoying the palace around the ruins.

"Why should the people be kept away from the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan?" asked a netizen from Guangdong Province, saying he was very disappointed by the palace when he came to see it early this year.

"All we need to do is to protect it properly, not just bar people from the palace," wrote this netizen.

Since the 1980s, there had been fierce debate on whether a new Yuanmingyuan should be established on the site of the ruins, with most people saying it should be left untouched.

Editor:Wang Nan