Empress Dowager Cixi's cruelty, revealed in stories in which she murdered other concubines and members of the royal family out of a desire for autocracy, made her the top three evil women in China's history. Unfortunately, her achievements are often dwarfed by her brutality, and she was usually viewed negatively by her descendants. Despite the widow Cixi's ruthless actions, she was an intelligent woman who noticed a significant change in China's culture, politics, and traditional values ​​during her reign. The widow Cixi should again be renowned as an unusually intelligent empress who played an important role in history. The widow Cixi had suffered from extreme poverty before entering the palace. As if wanting to prove her success, she lived an extravagant life as an empress and believed she could express the power of the empress through a luxurious building. Journalist Kim Jungmi says, "One of the examples showing Empress Dowager Cixi's luxurious life is the Summer Palace, which is also designated as a cultural heritage site of China." (Kim, 1, my translation) The widow Cixi had built the Summer Palace to satisfy her desire for wealth, but the palace had unexpectedly become one of the most beautiful places to visit in China. "The Summer Palace in Beijing - first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the War of 1860, and restored on its original foundations in 1886 - is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design," said the UNESCO when it added the Summer Palace to the World Heritage List in 1998. "The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial elements such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious whole of exceptional aesthetic value " (UNESCO,1) The world now recognizes the Summer Palace as a precious gift from... middle of paper... a piece of history. While every aspect of the widow Cixi cannot be morally justified, her success should not be belittled for her wickedness, but rather be praised for what she has done to her country and her people. Works Cited Headland, Isaac Taylor. Court life in China, the capital, its officials and its people. Champaign, Illinois: Project Gutenberg, 199. Print.Kim, Jung. "[Women in History] The Widow Cixi." Korea Weekly. Hankooki.com, July 3, 2003. Web. November 24, 2013. .Li, Chenyang. The sage and the second sex: Confucianism, ethics and gender. Chicago, Illinois: Open Court, 2000. Print.Rhie, Won-Bok. Far countries, nearby countries. Korea: Gimmyoung, 2011. Print."Summer Palace, an imperial garden in Beijing." - UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Np, nd Web. November 24. 2013. .