The Battle of Palikao (French: La bataille de Palikao; simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Blqio zh zhn; lit. 'Battle of the Eight-Mile Bridge') was fought at the bridge of Palikao by Anglo-French forces against the Qing Empire during the Second Opium War on the morning of 21 September 1860. It allowed Western forces to take the capital Beijing and eventually defeat the Qing Empire.

The Second Opium War (Chinese: 第二次鴉片戰爭; pinyin: Dì'èrcì Yāpiàn Zhànzhēng), also known as the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the French Empire against the Qing dynasty of China that lasted from 1856 to 1860.

In 1860, British and French troops landed near Beijing and fought their way into the city. Negotiations quickly broke down and the British High Commissioner to China ordered the troops to loot and destroy the Imperial Summer Palace, a complex and garden where Qing Dynasty emperors had traditionally handled the country’s official matters.

The second Opium War forced the Qing government to sign peace treaties between China and Russia such Tianjin Treaty and Beijing Treaty. As a result, China lost more than 1.5 million square kilometers of territory in northeast and northwest China. After the war, the Qing government was able to concentrate on the Taiping Rebellion and maintaining its rule. The agreements of the Convention of Peking led to the ceding of Kowloon Peninsula as part of Hong Kong.

It was the second major war in the Opium Wars, fought over issues relating to the exportation of opium to China, and resulted in a second defeat for the Qing dynasty. The war caused many Chinese officials to believe that conflicts with the Western powers were no longer traditional affairs, but part of a looming national crisis.