China Palace

Nanjing Imperial Palace (Ming Dynasty Palace) 南京故宫

Nanjing imperial palace, also known as the Ming Dynasty Palace or Nanjing Forbidden City, is the imperial palace of the capital of the Ming dynasty.

It took more than 20 years to build, covering an area of more than 1,025 thousand square meters. Moreover, it is the most significant palace group in the middle ages, and is the "No. 1 palace in the world". This China Palace as the best one of the imperial palace in ancient China, it has been inherited by the imperial palace in Beijing and as the blueprint for the imperial palace in Beijing.

From the year 1366, people start to build the Nanjing imperial palace and completed until 1392. This China Palace as the imperial palace of the Ming dynasty, for 54 years. Until the 1421 year, the Ming emperor moved to Beijing and ordered the royal family garrisoned it.

The utterly imperial palace located in the east of Nanjing, with a series of buildings designed to highlight the "sacred" imperial power as the content.  The highest central area agencies as the core region of the Ming dynasty is also the core of the Ming Dynasty Palace. In the early Ming dynasty, the pivotal role of Nanjing city was to serve as the core area of the country's highest administrative body.

Potala Palace 布达拉宫

The Potala Palace located in the northwest of Tibet's capital, Lhasa of China; it is a significant palace castle group.

It originally built for the marriage of Princess Wencheng (625~680年), and after the reconstruction of the 17th century, it became the residence of the Dalai Lama's winter palace and the ruling center of Tibet's political and religious integration.

The whole the palace has a typical Tibetan style, built around the mountains; it is imposing magnificence. The contrast of red, white and yellow colors, the building blocks of the division and the construction of the layers, all embody the desirable characteristics of Tibetan ancient architecture.

Potala Palace is an outstanding representative of Tibetan architecture and a masterpiece of ancient China Palace architecture. The palace also houses countless treasures, which is a temple of art. In 1961, China government announced the Potala Palace as one of the first national key cultural relic’s protection units. In 1994, the world heritage site included the Potala Palace.

Lama Temple 雍和宫

The Lama temple located in the northeast corner of downtown Beijing. In 1694, emperor Kangxi built a mansion here and later gave it to the fourth princes. In 1725, Kangxi changed it to a palace.

Later, Emperor Qianlong was born in the palace. The lama temple had two emperors, thus to become the blessed land, so in the Qing dynasty, the color of the lama temple could only decorate with the same as the imperial palace, Yellow tiles and red walls (the only the emperor can use this instead decorate color in the Qing dynasty). In 1744, Qianlong changed the palace to a Lama Temple. This Lama temple is the tallest Buddhist temple in China Palace.

The Lama temple is covering a total area of 66,000 square meters. There are 661 rooms, including 238 Buddhist temple. The buildings of the whole temple have three parts of the east, middle and west. Also, the middle consists of seven courtyards and five-story halls. There are also many different halls and buildings.

The whole building has the characteristics of Han, Manchu and Mongolian and other national architectural all in one. Its architectural style is unique in China Palace. The Lama temple is the treasures of Han-Tibetan culture.

Queen of Heaven Palace 天后宫

The queen of heaven palace located at the east gate of the old city of Tianjin. It built in the Yuan dynasty (AD1326) and rebuilt in the Ming dynasty (AD 1403), which is the oldest building in Tianjin city. It is also one of the earliest Mazu temples in China Palace, a religious building.

The palace faces the sea, the building area of 2500 square meters, the palace dedicated to the queen of heaven. In ancient times, people were called the goddess of protection sea. Legend has it that she was an outstanding swimmer, and she often sailed to sea to rescue the victims. Therefore, people respected her as the goddess.

The primary function of the heavenly palace is to pray for the safety of navigation, which is the place of the ancient shipmen's entertainment. In addition to the ceremony of the solemn tradition, there are often have various Chinese characteristics of the worship of the goddess.

It said that the birthday of Mazu is on the 23rd day of the 3rd lunar month. And the folk flower often celebrates for the day, which attracts many visitors.

Yongle Palace 永乐宫

Yongle Palace, formerly a Taoist temple, was built for Lu dongbin, one of the ancient Taoist gods of Taoism, which building in Yongle town, so known as Yongle Palace.

Yongle Palace is a very influential China Palace for ancient architecture, mural art. The mural painting here is a treasure of the art of mural painting in China, which only the Dunhuang mural painting can compare with it. In the four halls, with a total area of 960 square meters, covers the mural paintings in Yongle palace.

From AD 1247, people start to build the Yongle palace and completed in AD 1358, of the Yuan dynasty. The construction period lasted for more than 110 years and endured almost the beginning and end of the Yuan dynasty.

Summer Palace 圆明园

Summer Palace is a most extensive royal garden in China Palace, locates in northwest Beijing. Also, there are many small gardens, scattered around the east, west, and south, surrounded by the palace.

In 1709, the Qing emperor built the Summer Palace; the garden area is more than 350 hectares, with about 200 thousand square meters. During the summer, the emperor came here to avoid the heat, to listen to politics and to deal with military affairs. Therefore, he also referred to as the "Summer Palace."

Summer Palace, under the creation and management of more than 150 years of Qing dynasty. With its grand regional scale, the outstanding construction craft, and profound cultural connotation enjoys an excellent reputation in the world. French writer, Victor Hugo accolade, regarded it as “A model of ideal and art.”It is a pity that the palace has been destroyed in the war.

Guangzhou Confucian-Education Palace 广府学宫

Guangzhou Confucian-Education Palace, located in Guangzhou of Guangdong province. This China Palace is an education place, which is the Confucian education base in the south of China. This palace built in the Song dynasty, and the heyday in the Qing dynasty. From the Song dynasty to the Qing dynasty, ancient taught Confucian courses in this palace. The palace is the most famous education palace in ancient China.

In the Song dynasty, it was the highest school in Guangzhou, the equivalent of today's high school. Moreover, there was an imperial examination system, so that the entrance to the college must go through the children's test. That is, it must be a scholar to enter here and learn the content of Confucianism.

In the Yuan dynasty, the first emperor of the Yuan dynasty raised Confucius as an unprecedented height, so the palace was called a Confucian Temple school. The school is the social education, through this kind of school education style, the worship of the Confucian form pervading the people, deep into the social classes.

In the Ming dynasty, they changed the Confucian Temple School to a higher level, to an Official Education Institution. It is only for the outstanding student to continue to study here. There is a regular monthly examination by the academic officials.

In the Qing dynasty, integrated the system of the Ming dynasty, the function of the educational institution is the same as that of the Ming dynasty. The person who qualifies to learn in here that indicates that the person has been able to make progress on the road of learning and examination.