I had absolutely no knowledge of this history, which is not really on the history curriculum in Napoleon's campaigns. It was also the period of the industrial revolution, as my daughter reminded me. She is fond of history but yet did not know this looting.

I was able to see what was left of the Summer Palace. A text by Victor Hugo, who has never seen this monument, is engraved on a stone with the Chinese translation. This destruction was felt as a humiliation by the Chinese people. I didn't dare to say that I was French when I visited it, even if Victor Hugo's text moved me a lot.

The new Summer Palace is also magnificent, with its gardens and pagodas. Below, there are Xi and Kunming lakes.

The old Summer Palace was looted and then burned down by Napoleon's army with the English during the Chinese campaign.

The new Summer Palace, which is also an architectural splendour, was built not far from the Old One from 1886, by Empress Cixi.

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace in its World Heritage List. She calls it "an outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape gardening, integrating human achievements and nature into a harmonious whole."