Tourists visit the replica of the New Yuanmingyuan Park in Dongyang, Zhejiang province, on Sunday. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"The Old Summer Palace represents the last peak of ancient Chinese architecture, and no one is able to duplicate its original style today," said Lyu Zhou, deputy dean of the School of Architecture, at Tsinghua University, in an interview on China National Radio in late April.

" The Old Summer Palace is important for today's people as a record of foreign invasion. However, it lost the meaning as a garden the moment it was burned, and that meaning is irretrievable."

The administrative office of Ruins of Yuanmingyuan Park in Beijing also recently said it may take legal action against the replica for violation of property rights.