Summer Palace, Old and New

Jackie Chan's l01 movie, Chinese Zodiac(CZ12) may get a bad review but that did not stop it from making a record 43 million RMB during its debut. The movie was not as bad as it was painted out to be and I for one, would think it could stand up to some of the Hollywood greats. That apart, the movie with its historical prologue reminds me of my confusion of the Summer Palace. In 1986, I had visited a Summer Palace ( 颐和园 Yíhé Yuán Gardens of Nurtured Harmony) in Beijing which is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. I remember the local guide talking about the palace being looted but that of course was the old Summer Palace(圆明园 Yuan Ming Yuan Gardens of Perfect Brightness) which began constructions in 1707 during the reign of Kangxi Emperor. The old summer palace was of course the one looted by the French and British.The bronze-cast heads of the 12 Chinese zodiac statues in the Haiyantang Zodiac fountain 海晏堂 Hǎiyàntáng) in the old palace were the subjects in CZ 12 and these treasures thankfully had just been looted and not destroyed like the palace which took 150 years to be constructed but just 3 days to be razed to the ground. Then, of course, who knows? While some of the bronze-cast heads are either in the Poly Art Museum in Beijing or in the private collections of  the co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent Couture House, Pierre Bergé, the whereabouts of the dragon, snake, goat, rooster and pig are unknown.

Which is the old Summer Palace and which is the new Summer Palace?