Trio builds Old Summer Palace out of Legos

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A group of three Lego fans in Beijing spent half a year on the reproduction of part of the destroyed Old Summer Palace using 660,000 pieces of the building blocks.

According to Beijing Youth Daily, it has already cost the trio some 300,000 yuan (about 45,000 US dollars), all privately funded, to research, design and purchase the materials to make the 1:50 ratio model, which occupies a board of 4.47 square meters.

Photo from Weibo account @wangjusixiang

Liu Yang, an academic member of the China Old Summer Palace Society contacted the team after reading about the Lego model on social media in August. "They’ve finished two thirds of landscape modeling by that time. I find it very creative and amazing! "

Liu provided the team with a high-definition layout and detailed photos, "The most challenging part to reproducing the Palace is lack of historical information. It requires 360 degrees of architecture to make sure the reproduction is closest to the original appearance from all perspectives."

Photo from Weibo account @wangjusixiang

Team leader, surnamed Wang, said they’ve encountered other problems when making the model, "most bricks are square, but the Dashuifa Site (fountain site) is wavy. We had to try numerous times by assembling different pieces to present the most satisfying effect. "

When completed, they hope to put their work on display at the Palace to help people of all ages learn about the missing culture.

Screenshot from Weibo

Users on China’s leading social media platform Weibo, are impressed by the work.

"The destruction of Yuanmingyuan is a great loss of China, and a great pity to the world," said a netizen @hangze_c.

"This is only part of the Palace. I can’t imagine how spectacular the original garden was," commented another named @Senliang.

Xinhua Photo

The palace, also known in Chinese as Yuanmingyuan, is renowned for its extensive collection of gardens, architecture, art and historical treasures.

Dubbed the "Garden of Gardens," it was devastated and burned down after massive looting during the Second Opium War over 150 years ago.