Why is Nanjing Presidential Palace special?
Covering an area of 90,000 square meters, Nanjing Presidential Palace enjoys a history of 600 years from the early Ming Dynasty. In 1912, Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the temporary President here, which was the first democratic regime in China. And now Nanjing Presidential Palace is served as China Modern History Museum.
As a democratic forerunner, Sun Yat-sen’s statue stands in the middle of the palace, with the government memorabilia on two sides. In the palace, numerous modern Chinese and Western architectural examples, precious cultural relics and historical data as well as a unique atmosphere of history and culture are well preserved.
The Presidential Palace could be thought of as Nanjing version of the Forbidden City in Beijing for it once being home to emperors and political leaders with beautiful architectures and natural sceneries.
Nanjing Presidential Palace Highlights
The Presidential Palace can be divided into three main areas: The middle area is principally the seat of the National Government, the Presidential Palace and the subsidiary organs; the west area is the location of the office of Sun Yat-sen as the temporary president, secretariat, west garden, and general staff; while the east area mainly contains the former site of the Executive Yuan, stables and east garden. A series of exhibition halls and historical data displays can also be found in these main three areas.
The gate of the Presidential Palace is western style with meters-long guard stations on two sides, while the second gate is typical Chinese style. Through the gate there is a long corridor, along which are hall, foreign guest reception room, lobby of president and some offices. At the end of the Palace is a building called “Zichao Building” which got the name by another name of Hushen, the chairman of National Government at that time. There are altogether 1189 rooms, halls, towers, pavilions and attics in the palace, but they can be a whole because they are connected by corridors.
Apart from the various office buildings, Xi garden is also attractive. There exists a pool shaped like a vase, called Taiping Lake. On the east and the north are Wangfei Building and Xijia Building. Wangfei Building was built in Kangxi period in the Qing Dynasty. It was originally a two stories building. The name of Wangfei Building is endowed by the legend that the birds rested here after a long flying, then forget to depart because of the beautiful view. Besides, there are marble boats, the waterside pavilion, the Banting Pavilion, the Yilan Pavilion, the Mandarin Pavilion and so on for you to appreciate.