The Lama Temple

In the northeast corner of the old city of Beijing lies a group of buildings with yellow roofs bounded by a red wall. It is the famous Yonghe Palace, or the Lama Temple, covering an area of 66,400 square meters. This temple is listed as significant historical site protected by the national government.
This temple is different from other temples for its uniqueness, in terms of history and contents. It was built in 1694, and was the residence of the Manchu Prince Heze. In 1723, Heze succeeded to the throne as Emperor Yongzheng. In the third year (1725) of Yongzheng's reign, the site was turned into a royal residence, and thus, the green tiles were changed to yellow, for yellow was the imperial color. It was called Yonghe Gong (the Palace of Eternal Harmony). The emperor later converted the palace into a lamasery for monks from Mongolia and Tibet, for both Emperor Yongzheng and his son, Qianlong, were all believers of Lamaism. In 1744, during Emperor Qianlong's reign, it was officially declared a Lama temple.
The Lama Temple preserves over one thousand Buddhist figures and rich classical cultural relics of Buddhism. Besides, it displays a large number of other rare cultural relics, including its three treasures: a 18-metre-high statue of Maitreya (the Smiling Buddha) carved out of a single sandalwood trunk; the miniature "Mountain of Five Hundred arhats" made of gold, silver, copper, iron and tin; and a shrine made of Nanmu, a precious hardwood with golden veins. There were originally four halls for learning, namely, the Hall of Mathematics, the Hall of Explicating the Scriptures, the Hall of Tantra and the Medicine Hall, and lamas studied in these halls with a term usually lasting more than 10 years. It took 30 years for lamas to study Buddhism from enrollment to graduation.

The Shenyang Imperial Palace

The Shenyang Imperial Palace was built in 1625 when the Manchus declared Shenyang to be their capital. Upon founding the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Manchus moved their court to Beijing and Shenyang became the secondary capital, which was later called Shenyang Imperial Palace. The palace was enlarged and improved over the years and while its layout has the traditional Han style, it also blends with the Manchu, Mongolian and Han styles

In 1625, Nurhaci began construction of the palace and completed in 1636 under Aisin Giorro Abahai's reign (or Huang Taiji, son of Nurhaci). Although it is considered a miniature of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Palace by comparison is smaller in scale, covering an area of over 60,000 square meters. It has a cluster of palaces surrounded from east, middle and west sides, the layout of which appears to be natural, sublime and imposing.
The Shenyang Imperial Palace comprises three parts of architectures. The Dazheng Hall and the Shiwang Pavilion, built during the reign of Nurhaci, are the main architectures on the east axis. The main architectures on the central axis are the imperial halls built during the reign of Abahai, including Daqing Gate, Chongzheng Hall, Phoenix Tower, Qingning Hall, Guanju Hall, Linzhi Hall, Yanqing Hall and Yongfu Hall. On the west axis there are Wusu Pavilion, Jiayin Hall and Yangxi Room, which were added to the palace during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that though the Forbidden City in Beijing had formed a large scale and was magnificent, Qianlong preferred to visit the Shenyang Imperial Palace now and then.
The Dazheng Hall, located in the center of the architecture on the east axis, is an octagonal pavilion-style building. It has two pillars entwined with dragons to present dignity and solemnity because important national ceremonies like enthronement or death of a sovereign, and announcement of going out for a battle. On the two sides of the hall are ten pavilions called the Shiwang Pavilion (Pavilion for Ten Kings) for the Manchurian tribal lords and the two kings to gather for discussion of state affairs.
The Chongzheng Hall, where Abahai attended to his political affairs, on the central axis is the most important building in the palace. The Phoenix Tower, located north of the hall, was then the highest building in Shenyang City. The Chongzheng Hall also looks like a pavilion as a whole, but since it has a big bulk and is magnificently decorated, it was called a hall instead of a pavilion.
For its huge collection of valuable palace cultural relics, splendid architectural scale and extraordinary appearance of imperial palaces, the Shenyang Imperial Palace is the most intact imperial building ever existing in China's history, only next to the Forbidden City. It is famous for its unique characteristics of the Manchu nationality.

The Changle Palace

Chang'an (today's Xi'an City inShaanxiProvince) was originally a county neighboring Xianyang on the southern side ofWeiheRiverin the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC). As a communications hub, it later became a strategic place many military commanders scrambled for. Suggested by his talented minister Zhang Liang, Liu Bang established his capital in Chang'an. In 202BC, Han Emperor Gao Zu (Liu Bang) of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD) constructedChanglePalaceon the basis of theXinglePalaceof the Qin Dynasty, and moved the Han capital from Liyang to Chang'an two years later when theChanglePalacewas completed.
In Chang'an there were many palaces, of which theWeiyangPalace,ChanglePalaceandJianzhangPalacewere the three major ones. They were collectively called the Three Han Palaces. TheChanglePalace, situated on the southeastern corner of the city, had an almost square plane and was surrounded by a 10,000-meter-perimeter palace wall with a 20-meter-wide wall base. The palace covered an area of about 6 square kilometers, about one sixth of Chang'an City of the Han Dynasty. There were four gates on the four sides of the palace wall. Halls within the palace have already been severely destroyed.
In history, theChanglePalacewas also called theEastPalace. Famous strategist Han Xin in ancient times was murdered here by Liu Bang's wife Lu Zhi. After Liu Bang died, emperors began to live in theWeiyangPalaceand theChanglePalacebecame the residence for queen mothers. TheChanglePalacewas the political center of the Western Han Dynasty and it generally consisted of four halls: Changxin Hall, Changqiu Hall, Yongshou Hall and Yongning Hall. TheChanglePalacewas where Liu Bang, or Emperor Gaozu, handled state affairs.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shaanxi Provincial Government, the archeological department of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Cultural Relics Managing Committee, etc., made great efforts to research and excavation work, and made great achievements. Grand architectural sites likeChanglePalace,WeiyangPalace,GuiPalace,BeiPalaceandMingguangPalacereceived continuous preservations and repairs. Many historical relics were excavated fromChanglePalace, e.g. a large number of construction materials including rope-line board tiles, pantiles, and eave tiles with cloud patterns or Chinese characters.
Recently a rare offtake was excavated from the site of theChanglePalace. Two conduits, over one meter deep underground, were made of figuline and stretched northward like huge dragons along a 57-meter-long and 1.8-meter-wide offtake. This also shows the superb level of Chinese palace architecture in the Western Han Dynasty from another aspect.

The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace is situated on a hill some 2 km northwest of Lhasa City, capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is a world-renowned architectural group of palace-fortress style and embodies the essence of Tibetan ancient architectural arts and wisdom of the Tibetan people. It was the religious and political center of old Tibet and the winter residence of Dalai Lamas. From the reign of the Fifth Dalai Lama, major religious and political ceremonies were all held here.
The Potala Palace, with a history of about l400 years, was first built in the 7th century under the Tubo chieftain Songtsan Gambo. In the early Tang Dynasty (618-907), Songtsan Gambo took Princess Wencheng, a daughter of the Tang royal family, as his wife. In order that posterity could remember this great event, he had a nine-storey building with a thousand rooms constructed on Red Hill, which is at an altitude of 3,700-odd meters, as the residence for the princess and named it Potala Palace.
The palace, reclining against and capping Red Hill, has a large scale. It now covers an area of 410,000 square meters, and its construction area alone totals 130,000 square meters. The stone-wood structured main building has a l3-storeyed facade totaling 110 meters in height, built tier upon tier from the hi1l foot up to peak. Five palace halls are covered with gold-plating copper tiles, presenting a really magnificent view.
According to the rule of sunlight refraction on the tableland, the design and construction of the Potala Palace adopted wide and solid wall foundations, with cuniculuses and intakes dug out of the foundation and extending in all directions. Inside the rooms there are pillars, wooden square blocks, girders, traditional beams, etc., to form the supporting framework. All halls and rooms have clerestories for daylight and fresh air. On the walls of the Palace are murals, totaling 2,500 square meters.
At the collapse of Tubo Dynasty found by Songtsan Gambo, the Potala Palace was largely destroyed by wars. In the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the fifth Dalai Lama founded the Ganden Phodrang Dynasty. From l645, the Potala Palace started reconstruction. Later on, through repeated enlargements carried out by successive Dalai Lamas, the Potala Palace acquired the grandness as seen today, and formally became a holy site for Tibetan Buddhism.
The complex mainly comprises the White Palace, which is the residence for Dalai Lamas; the Red Palace, which is a sacred building; and the residence of monasteries.
The Red Palace consists of halls, stupas and various kinds of chapels. It houses altogether eight stupas, among which the largest one belonged to the fifth Dalai Lama. Records show that this stupa alone cost 119,000 liang (3,700 kilograms) of gold and the mummified and perfumed body of the fifth Dalai Lama is preserved inside it. The Great West Hall is the largest hall in the Red Palace, housing many rare treasures such as a pair of large-sized brocaded veiling bestowed by Emperor Kangxi and a stele bestowed by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The gallery on the upstairs of the Great West Hall leads to a cave where Songtsan Gambo used to cultivate himself. The cave, built in the seventh century, is one of the oldest architectures in the Potala Palace and it houses statues of Songtsan Gambo, Princess Wencheng and Songtsan Gambo's ministers.
The Potala Palace is not only the symbol of the Tibetan ethic minority, but also the symbole of the solidification of the Chinese people. It is also a gem of Tibetan architectural art that offers mankind a plateau snow land's cultural heritage without parallel in the world. The palace was listed as a major national cultural relic to be reserved in 1961, and was listed among the World Heritage List by the UNESCO in December 1994

Daming Palace

The luxurious Daming Palace was one of the three large imperial architectural complexes inside Chang'an (today's Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907): the Daming Palace in the east, Taiji Palace in the west and Xingqing Palace in the south. Of the three, the Daming Palace has the largest scale.
The site is on the Longshou Plateau in the northeast of Xi'an. The palace was first constructed in the eighth year (634) of the Zhenguan reign in the Tang Dynasty. It was originally named Yong'an Palace and renamed Daming Palace in 635, then Penglai Palace after renovation in 662, Yuan Palace in 670 and Daming Palace again in 701. In the following 200-odd years to the end of the Tang Dynasty, emperors all lived in the Daming Palace (except Tang Emperor Xuanzong once lived in the Xingqing Palace), and the palace served as a place for emperors to handle state affairs, receive officials and hold big events such as dress parades. Thus it turned into the national political center.
The Daming Palace covers 12 square kilometers and the city wall is 7.5 kilometers in girth. The city wall is built of rammed earth, the bottom is 10.5 meters wide and the wall foundation is 13.5 meters wide. The palace has nine city gates and within the palace city there are three parallel east-west city walls that divide the palace into three areas. The three areas fall into two parts: the front court and the inner court, according to their functions.
In the palace there were and other great halls while the Hanyuan Hall in front of the palace was the main one. From the site of the Hanyuan Hall one could see its large scale with the Xiangluan Pavilion to its east and the Xifeng Pavilion to its west, both of which were linked to the hall with corridors. In front of the Hanyuan Hall was a wave-shaped "Dragon-tail Road".
The front court has two areas. Along the axis from north to south stand the Hanyuan Hall, the Xuanzheng Hall and the Zihuan Hall, which were collectively called as the Three Great Halls in the history and were the most magnificent architectures in Chang'an. The Hanyuan Hall is the main hall within the Danfeng Gate and is called the outer court. The hall is 11 bays wide and 4 bays, and its east, west and north walls are built of rammed earth. On the southeast is the Xiangruan Pavilion, and on the southwest is the Qifeng Pavilion, which are both connected with the Hanyuan Hall by corridors. There is a relic of a hall where the sovereign discusses state affairs with senior officials each before the two pavilions. More than one hundred meters away from the hall there is the site of the gate, which might have been ruins of a decorated archway. On both sides of the gate, two partition walls run across the palace and in the front is a big square.
The Xuanzheng Hall is about 300 meters to the north of the Hanyuan Hall, and is called the Middle Court, where the emperor held court, conferred titles of nobility on his subjects and announced major policies. The base of the hall is about 70 meters long from east to east, and more than 40 meters wide from south to north. About 130 meters in front of the hall is the Xuanzheng Gate and on the east and west corridors stand several royal office buildings.
The Zihuan Hall is about 95 meters north of the Xuanzheng Hall, being a part of the inner court. It is where emperors discussed state affairs with his ministers, and sometimes held large celebrations. The base of the hall is near 50 meters wide from south to north, but has suffered serious damage.
The inner court is the place where emperors and empresses and imperial concubines lived and entertained themselves. In the central area there was the Taiye Pond, which is also called as the Penglai Pond and divided into the east pond and the west pond, is located at the low-lying place of the northern slope of the Dragon Head Source, and covers a total area of more than 100,000 square meters. A hillock covered with bricks and stones in the pond is the relic of the Penglai Mountain. Originally there were the Taiye Pavilion on the top and cloisters around the hillock.
In the west of the inner court lies the Linde Hall, where emperors held banquets, appreciated dancing and singing performances and received foreign envoys. The base of the hall was built of rammed earth, and its four sides were built by laying bricks or stones. The base is more than 130 meters from south to north, and more than 80 meters from east to west, on which there were three adjoining halls surrounded by cloisters with symmetrical pavilions and storied buildings on both sides.
The palace was a masterpiece of ancient architecture. However, it was finally destroyed after suffering from three wars in 883, 885 and 896 respectively. From 1957 to 1962, the archeological research institute of China Academy of Sciences surveyed and excavated the sites, and in 1984 another major excavation was carried out, focusing on major sites. As a result, the sites of Hanyuan, Linde and Sanqing halls, Lingruan and Qifeng pavilions, Taiye Pond and Penglai Pavilion now can be clearly seen.
Today, the Daming Palace is opened as an important scenic spot for tourists from home and abroad, disseminating the long history and brilliant culture of the Chinese nation. The renovated palace site has many exhibition halls that display the cultural relics unearthed in the site. The State Council proclaimed the Daming Palace as a key cultural relics site under the state protection in 1961, and set up a special storage bureau to manage the cultural relics unearthed in the Daming Palace site.

The Shenyang Imperial Palace

The Shenyang Imperial Palace was built in 1625 when the Manchus declared Shenyang to be their capital. Upon founding the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Manchus moved their court to Beijing and Shenyang became the secondary capital, which was later called Shenyang Imperial Palace. The palace was enlarged and improved over the years and while its layout has the traditional Han style, it also blends with the Manchu, Mongolian and Han styles.
In 1625, Nurhaci began construction of the palace and completed in 1636 under Aisin Giorro Abahai's reign (or Huang Taiji, son of Nurhaci). Although it is considered a miniature of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Palace by comparison is smaller in scale, covering an area of over 60,000 square meters. It has a cluster of palaces surrounded from east, middle and west sides, the layout of which appears to be natural, sublime and imposing.

The Shenyang Imperial Palace comprises three parts of architectures. The Dazheng Hall and the Shiwang Pavilion, built during the reign of Nurhaci, are the main architectures on the east axis. The main architectures on the central axis are the imperial halls built during the reign of Abahai, including Daqing Gate, Chongzheng Hall, Phoenix Tower, Qingning Hall, Guanju Hall, Linzhi Hall, Yanqing Hall and Yongfu Hall. On the west axis there are Wusu Pavilion, Jiayin Hall and Yangxi Room, which were added to the palace during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. It is said that though the Forbidden City in Beijing had formed a large scale and was magnificent, Qianlong preferred to visit the Shenyang Imperial Palace now and then.

The Dazheng Hall, located in the center of the architecture on the east axis, is an octagonal pavilion-style building. It has two pillars entwined with dragons to present dignity and solemnity because important national ceremonies like enthronement or death of a sovereign, and announcement of going out for a battle. On the two sides of the hall are ten pavilions called the Shiwang Pavilion (Pavilion for Ten Kings) for the Manchurian tribal lords and the two kings to gather for discussion of state affairs.
The Chongzheng Hall, where Abahai attended to his political affairs, on the central axis is the most important building in the palace. The Phoenix Tower, located north of the hall, was then the highest building in Shenyang City. The Chongzheng Hall also looks like a pavilion as a whole, but since it has a big bulk and is magnificently decorated, it was called a hall instead of a pavilion.
For its huge collection of valuable palace cultural relics, splendid architectural scale and extraordinary appearance of imperial palaces, the Shenyang Imperial Palace is the most intact imperial building ever existing in China's history, only next to the Forbidden City. It is famous for its unique characteristics of the Manchu nationality.

The Changle Palace

Chang'an (today's Xi'an City inShaanxiProvince) was originally a county neighboring Xianyang on the southern side ofWeiheRiverin the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC). As a communications hub, it later became a strategic place many military commanders scrambled for. Suggested by his talented minister Zhang Liang, Liu Bang established his capital in Chang'an. In 202BC, Han Emperor Gao Zu (Liu Bang) of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD) constructedChanglePalaceon the basis of theXinglePalaceof the Qin Dynasty, and moved the Han capital from Liyang to Chang'an two years later when theChanglePalacewas completed.
In Chang'an there were many palaces, of which theWeiyangPalace,ChanglePalaceandJianzhangPalacewere the three major ones. They were collectively called the Three Han Palaces. TheChanglePalace, situated on the southeastern corner of the city, had an almost square plane and was surrounded by a 10,000-meter-perimeter palace wall with a 20-meter-wide wall base. The palace covered an area of about 6 square kilometers, about one sixth of Chang'an City of the Han Dynasty. There were four gates on the four sides of the palace wall. Halls within the palace have already been severely destroyed.
In history, the Changle Palace was also called theEastPalace. Famous strategist Han Xin in ancient times was murdered here by Liu Bang's wife Lu Zhi. After Liu Bang died, emperors began to live in theWeiyangPalaceand theChanglePalacebecame the residence for queen mothers. TheChanglePalacewas the political center of the Western Han Dynasty and it generally consisted of four halls: Changxin Hall, Changqiu Hall, Yongshou Hall and Yongning Hall. TheChanglePalacewas where Liu Bang, or Emperor Gaozu, handled state affairs.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shaanxi Provincial Government, the archeological department of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Cultural Relics Managing Committee, etc., made great efforts to research and excavation work, and made great achievements. Grand architectural sites likeChanglePalace,WeiyangPalace,GuiPalace,BeiPalaceandMingguangPalacereceived continuous preservations and repairs. Many historical relics were excavated fromChanglePalace, e.g. a large number of construction materials including rope-line board tiles, pantiles, and eave tiles with cloud patterns or Chinese characters.
Recently a rare offtake was excavated from the site of theChanglePalace. Two conduits, over one meter deep underground, were made of figuline and stretched northward like huge dragons along a 57-meter-long and 1.8-meter-wide offtake. This also shows the superb level of Chinese palace architecture in the Western Han Dynasty from another aspect

The Potala Palace

The Potala Palace is situated on a hill some 2 km northwest of Lhasa City, capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is a world-renowned architectural group of palace-fortress style and embodies the essence of Tibetan ancient architectural arts and wisdom of the Tibetan people. It was the religious and political center of old Tibet and the winter residence of Dalai Lamas. From the reign of the Fifth Dalai Lama, major religious and political ceremonies were all held here.
The Potala Palace, with a history of about l400 years, was first built in the 7th century under the Tubo chieftain Songtsan Gambo. In the early Tang Dynasty (618-907), Songtsan Gambo took Princess Wencheng, a daughter of the Tang royal family, as his wife. In order that posterity could remember this great event, he had a nine-storey building with a thousand rooms constructed on Red Hill, which is at an altitude of 3,700-odd meters, as the residence for the princess and named it Potala Palace.
The palace, reclining against and capping Red Hill, has a large scale. It now covers an area of 410,000 square meters, and its construction area alone totals 130,000 square meters. The stone-wood structured main building has a l3-storeyed facade totaling 110 meters in height, built tier upon tier from the hi1l foot up to peak. Five palace halls are covered with gold-plating copper tiles, presenting a really magnificent view.
According to the rule of sunlight refraction on the tableland, the design and construction of the Potala Palace adopted wide and solid wall foundations, with cuniculuses and intakes dug out of the foundation and extending in all directions. Inside the rooms there are pillars, wooden square blocks, girders, traditional beams, etc., to form the supporting framework. All halls and rooms have clerestories for daylight and fresh air. On the walls of the Palace are murals, totaling 2,500 square meters.
At the collapse of Tubo Dynasty found by Songtsan Gambo, the Potala Palace was largely destroyed by wars. In the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the fifth Dalai Lama founded the Ganden Phodrang Dynasty. From l645, the Potala Palace started reconstruction. Later on, through repeated enlargements carried out by successive Dalai Lamas, the Potala Palace acquired the grandness as seen today, and formally became a holy site for Tibetan Buddhism.
The complex mainly comprises the White Palace, which is the residence for Dalai Lamas; the Red Palace, which is a sacred building; and the residence of monasteries.
The Red Palace consists of halls, stupas and various kinds of chapels. It houses altogether eight stupas, among which the largest one belonged to the fifth Dalai Lama. Records show that this stupa alone cost 119,000 liang (3,700 kilograms) of gold and the mummified and perfumed body of the fifth Dalai Lama is preserved inside it. The Great West Hall is the largest hall in the Red Palace, housing many rare treasures such as a pair of large-sized brocaded veiling bestowed by Emperor Kangxi and a stele bestowed by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The gallery on the upstairs of the Great West Hall leads to a cave where Songtsan Gambo used to cultivate himself. The cave, built in the seventh century, is one of the oldest architectures in the Potala Palace and it houses statues of Songtsan Gambo, Princess Wencheng and Songtsan Gambo's ministers.
The Potala Palace is not only the symbol of the Tibetan ethic minority, but also the symbole of the solidification of the Chinese people. It is also a gem of Tibetan architectural art that offers mankind a plateau snow land's cultural heritage without parallel in the world. The palace was listed as a major national cultural relic to be reserved in 1961, and was listed among the World Heritage List by the UNESCO in December 1994.

Daming Palace

The luxurious Daming Palace was one of the three large imperial architectural complexes inside Chang'an (today's Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907): the Daming Palace in the east, Taiji Palace in the west and Xingqing Palace in the south. Of the three, the Daming Palace has the largest scale.
The site is on the Longshou Plateau in the northeast of Xi'an. The palace was first constructed in the eighth year (634) of the Zhenguan reign in the Tang Dynasty. It was originally named Yong'an Palace and renamed Daming Palace in 635, then Penglai Palace after renovation in 662, Yuan Palace in 670 and Daming Palace again in 701. In the following 200-odd years to the end of the Tang Dynasty, emperors all lived in the Daming Palace (except Tang Emperor Xuanzong once lived in the Xingqing Palace), and the palace served as a place for emperors to handle state affairs, receive officials and hold big events such as dress parades. Thus it turned into the national political center.
The Daming Palace covers 12 square kilometers and the city wall is 7.5 kilometers in girth. The city wall is built of rammed earth, the bottom is 10.5 meters wide and the wall foundation is 13.5 meters wide. The palace has nine city gates and within the palace city there are three parallel east-west city walls that divide the palace into three areas. The three areas fall into two parts: the front court and the inner court, according to their functions.
In the palace there were and other great halls while the Hanyuan Hall in front of the palace was the main one. From the site of the Hanyuan Hall one could see its large scale with the Xiangluan Pavilion to its east and the Xifeng Pavilion to its west, both of which were linked to the hall with corridors. In front of the Hanyuan Hall was a wave-shaped "Dragon-tail Road".
The front court has two areas. Along the axis from north to south stand the Hanyuan Hall, the Xuanzheng Hall and the Zihuan Hall, which were collectively called as the Three Great Halls in the history and were the most magnificent architectures in Chang'an. The Hanyuan Hall is the main hall within the Danfeng Gate and is called the outer court. The hall is 11 bays wide and 4 bays, and its east, west and north walls are built of rammed earth. On the southeast is the Xiangruan Pavilion, and on the southwest is the Qifeng Pavilion, which are both connected with the Hanyuan Hall by corridors. There is a relic of a hall where the sovereign discusses state affairs with senior officials each before the two pavilions. More than one hundred meters away from the hall there is the site of the gate, which might have been ruins of a decorated archway. On both sides of the gate, two partition walls run across the palace and in the front is a big square.
The Xuanzheng Hall is about 300 meters to the north of the Hanyuan Hall, and is called the Middle Court, where the emperor held court, conferred titles of nobility on his subjects and announced major policies. The base of the hall is about 70 meters long from east to east, and more than 40 meters wide from south to north. About 130 meters in front of the hall is the Xuanzheng Gate and on the east and west corridors stand several royal office buildings.
The Zihuan Hall is about 95 meters north of the Xuanzheng Hall, being a part of the inner court. It is where emperors discussed state affairs with his ministers, and sometimes held large celebrations. The base of the hall is near 50 meters wide from south to north, but has suffered serious damage.
The inner court is the place where emperors and empresses and imperial concubines lived and entertained themselves. In the central area there was the Taiye Pond, which is also called as the Penglai Pond and divided into the east pond and the west pond, is located at the low-lying place of the northern slope of the Dragon Head Source, and covers a total area of more than 100,000 square meters. A hillock covered with bricks and stones in the pond is the relic of the Penglai Mountain. Originally there were the Taiye Pavilion on the top and cloisters around the hillock.
In the west of the inner court lies the Linde Hall, where emperors held banquets, appreciated dancing and singing performances and received foreign envoys. The base of the hall was built of rammed earth, and its four sides were built by laying bricks or stones. The base is more than 130 meters from south to north, and more than 80 meters from east to west, on which there were three adjoining halls surrounded by cloisters with symmetrical pavilions and storied buildings on both sides.
The palace was a masterpiece of ancient architecture. However, it was finally destroyed after suffering from three wars in 883, 885 and 896 respectively. From 1957 to 1962, the archeological research institute of China Academy of Sciences surveyed and excavated the sites, and in 1984 another major excavation was carried out, focusing on major sites. As a result, the sites of Hanyuan, Linde and Sanqing halls, Lingruan and Qifeng pavilions, Taiye Pond and Penglai Pavilion now can be clearly seen.
Today, the Daming Palace is opened as an important scenic spot for tourists from home and abroad, disseminating the long history and brilliant culture of the Chinese nation. The renovated palace site has many exhibition halls that display the cultural relics unearthed in the site. The State Council proclaimed the Daming Palace as a key cultural relics site under the state protection in 1961, and set up a special storage bureau to manage the cultural relics unearthed in the Daming Palace site.

The Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty

Chang'an (today's Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province) was the capital of China in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), and was constructed and expanded on the basis of the Xingle Palace of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC). The northern rampart was close to Weishui River and southern rampart was built along walls of the palace. Buildings in the Chang'an City were mainly palaces, among which the Changle Palace and the Weiyang Palace were the most famous ones.
The Weiyang Palace, situated in southwestern Chang'an (5 kilometers from today's Xi'an downtown), was a meeting place for the emperor and ministers in the Han Dynasty. The overall layout waw quadrate and bounding walls surround the palace. The eastern and western walls measured 2,150 meters each, and northern and southern, 2,250 meters each. The whole palace had an area of about 5 square kilometers, one seventh of the city's total area.
Historical documents record that the construction of the Weiyang Palace was organized by Han Emperor Gaozu and supervised by his minister Xiao He soon after the Changle Palace underwent renovation. After the Weiyang Palace was completed, emperors in the Han Dynasty all lived here, so it enjoyed more prominent fame than other palaces. Poets in later generations often used the Weiyang Palace as the synonym of Han palaces in their works. The whole palace consisted of more than 40 halls. The Front Hall of Weiyang Palace was built besides the southern main gate and its huge structure base of rammed earth still lies there today.
Now the existing base of the Front Hall is about 150 meters from east to west and over 350 meters from north to south, and the highest point in the north reaches more than 10 meters. At the point about 200 meters north of the site of the Front Hall was the Jiaofang Hall discovered in 1987, where empresses of the Han Dynasty lived. On the north of the Weiyang Palace are the sites of the Tian Pavilion and the Shiqu Pavilion, which belonged to the Imperial Library of the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD). Eave tiles with characters of "Chang Le Wei Yang" and "Chang Sheng Wu Ji", Han air bricks and aqueducts could be found from time to time.
Major architectures within the palace include: the Front Hall, Xuanshi Hall, Wenshi Hall, Qingliang Hall, Qilig Hall, Jinhua Hall, Chengming Hall, Gaomen Hall, Baihu Hall, Yutang Hall, Xuande Hall, Jiaofang Hall, Shaoyang Hall, Bailiang Platform, Tianlu Pavilion and Shiju Pavilion, etc. Among them, the Front Hall is situated at the center of the whole palace, with its base altar spanning about 350 meters from north to south, 200 meters from east to west and 15 meters high at the north tiptop. Historical records show that Weiyang Palace had a Sima Gate (gate for defense) at each of the four sides, a watchtower at each of the northern and eastern gates -- the East Watchtower was for seigneurs to meet the emperor, and the North Watchtower, for scholars and ordinary people to submit written statements.
The Han Dynasty palaces in Chang'an are the palaces that served for the longest time in Chinese history. Chang'an was not only the political center of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang regime, Western Jin, Former Zhao, Former Qin, Later Qin, Western Wei and Northern Zhou dynasties, but also, many major historical events took place here, for instance, Zhang Qian, a diplomat of the Western Han Dynasty, set out here to inaugurate the Silk Road; Wang Zhaojun, one of the four beauties in ancient China, requested of her own accord in the palace to marry the Khan of the Hun, and so on.