Exhaustive restoration at Beijing's Yuanmingyuan has been generating a lot of excitement. Yuanmingyuan is Beijing's old Summer Palace, one of the grandest Imperial edifices in all of China. Now renovations on the western side of the palace are complete just in time for the Olympics.

Tuesday morning, the Jiuzhou section of the sprawling garden became the first part to open to the general public. The newly-restored Jiuzhou section dates to the earliest years of the complex. It covers 400-Thousand square meters. The old Summer Palace's most scenic body of water with its nine small islands is here.

The former imperial garden became a historic park in 1998. The huge compound is composed of three gardens - Yuanmingyuan, Changchunyuan and Yichunyuan. Until now, only yuanmingyuan was open to the public.

Renovation took into account protection of the environment. The walls and gates were reconstructed. Water quality was improved and subsidiary facilities were upgraded. At the ruin of Zhengjue Temple, nearly a thousand square meters has been reconstructed since 2003. A temporary exhibition hall has been set up at Hanjing Hall. Precious cultural relics excavated from the site are on display there.

Jiuzhou Qingyan is the core to Yuanmingyuan Garden. Its state of preservation is considered better than that of surrounding areas.

Reconstruction of the main entrance to Changchunyuan Garden and restoration of more than 1,000 meters of walls are part of the future plan. The reconstruction work will follow the original design.