Qianlong Garden

For much of the 20th century the exquisite interiors of the two-acre Qianlong Garden, built between 1771 and 1776 and tucked within Beijing’s legendary Forbidden City, lay hidden from view and slowly disintegrating. Today they are being saved, thanks to a unique 17-year-long restoration partnership between Beijing’s Palace Museum and the World Monuments Fund. Employing experts and artisans skilled in highly specialized and increasingly rarefied crafts (lantern making; bamboo carving; silk embroidery), the project has already completed work on the 18th-century Juanqinzhai pavilion, and has plans to restore all of the garden’s buildings and courtyards in the coming years.