Old Summer Palace (Beijing)

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The Old Summer Palace, known in Chinese as Yuan Ming Yuan (the Gardens of Perfect Brightness) was built in the 18th and early 19th century as the place where the emperors of the Qing dynasty resided and handled government affairs (the Forbidden City was used for formal ceremonies).
In 1860 during the Second Opium War, two British envoys, a journalist for The Times and their small escort of British and Indian troopers met with the Royal Prince under a flag of truce to negotiate. They were imprisoned and tortured, resulting in twenty deaths. The British High Commissioner to China, Lord Elgin, retaliated by ordering the destruction of the palace, which was then carried out by British and French troops and after being looted by both French and British troops.

The act of burning the palace has been perceived as barbaric and criminal by many Chinese, as well as by outside observers. In his "Expédition de Chine", Victor Hugo described the looting as, "'Two robbers breaking into a museum, devastating, looting and burning, leaving laughing hand-in-hand with their bags full of treasures; one of the robbers is called France and the other Britain."