# Forbidden City Restoration Project



## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*China Exclusive: Hall in Forbidden City to relive past glory *










BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Shrouded in scaffolding as scores of workers overhaul the tallest hall in China's Forbidden City, renovation of the most significant hall in the country is well under way. 

The renovation is expected to restore the hall's former glory from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), said Jin Hongkui, the palace's deputy curator. 

The renovation includes repairing the roof sides which have already started sinking, repairing corrupted wood columns, changing the broken glass tiles and repainting the ceramic glaze of the tiles. 

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, China's tallest timber ancient palace building, was closed to the public in January. Workers are overhauling the outer and inner frame of the hall and the renovation plan will be discussed by experts in June, Jin said. The whole renovation will last for two years. 

Located at a significant place at the axis of the Forbidden City, the Hall of Harmony used to be the place where grand ceremonies were held such as the emperor's enthronement, wedding, birthday and important occasions like the Chinese Lunar New Year. 

The hall, originally completed in 1420, was rebuilt after several fires and is over 300 years old. 

Examination and planning work for the hall's renovation began in 2004, according to Jin, which included literature research and collecting. Professionals combined manual mapping, three-dimensional laser scanning and wood survey technologies to overhaul and analyze the status of the hall. 

Experts from the Italian cultural heritage department also contributed to the work of pollutant analysis and tested repairing materials, bringing their experience of renovating ancient architecture in Europe, Jin said. 

He said the main structure of the hall is basically stable. But parts of the wood frame, ornaments, walls, roof tiles and the unique brackets inserted on the top of columns have suffered damage. 

The paintings on the outer eaves did not comply with the original design during the past renovations, he added. 

The Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum, situated in central Beijing, was the power center of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties from 1420 to 1912. 

The labyrinthine complex, home to 24 emperors, their families and courtesans, and reputed to have 9,999 rooms, is one of China's best known icons and most popular tourist attractions. It is visited by 7 million to 8 million tourists every year. 

UNESCO listed the Forbidden City as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987. 

The renovation of the Palace Museum, which started in 2002, will take more than 10 years to complete at a cost of over 2 billion yuan (250 million U.S. dollars). 

By the end of 2005, about 38,000 square meters of ancient architecture were repaired, costing more than 200 million yuan (25 million U.S. dollars).


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* Major Forbidden City hall to close for two-year repair *
4 January 2006
Copyright 2006 China Daily Information Company. All Rights Reserved.

The most important building in one of China's top tourist attractions is closing for two years for renovation work. 

Repairs on the Hall of Supreme Harmony Taihedian in Chinese at the Forbidden City, or Palace Museum, are due to begin on Friday. They are expected to be completed by 2008, in time for the Beijing Olympic Games. 

To make the hall look how it did when first built, workers will use original materials and procedures. 

A cloth, 40 metres high and 70 metres wide, is being placed over the hall while the work takes place. 

As the symbol of imperial power, the hall was where Ming and Qing (1368-1911) emperors received high officials and exercised their rule over the nation. 

It was also where great ceremonies were held, including those marking accessions, birthdays and the publication of lists of successful candidates in imperial examinations. It was also where war was declared. 

The renovation of the hall is a major part of the biggest restoration project in the history of the Forbidden City. By 2008, areas open to the public will be nearly 400,000 square metres, 12 per cent more than now. 

Among the areas under repair, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest and best-preserved wooden hall in China, has attracted the most attention. 

Since being rebuilt in 1695 in the reign of the Qing (1644-1911) Emperor Kangxi, the aged building has had to face three major problems the affects of the weather on glazed tiles, water leaking onto wood and coloured paintings on its walls fading away. 

"Many wooden parts were distorted because of years of over-loading," said Li Yongge, director of the restoration centre at the Palace Museum. "It needs surgery," Li added. "We are carrying out a thorough check." 

Tickets to the Forbidden City will remain the same, at 60 yuan (US$7.5) for adults.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Forbidden City calls in termite team *
23 May 2006
South China Morning Post

Termite busters from Zhejiang have been sent to Beijing to rid the Forbidden City of the insect scourge eating away at the imperial timber. 

Xinhua reported on Sunday that workers renovating the 700-year-old buildings, also known as the Palace Museum, found the tiny insects munching through some of the complex's wooden structures. 

Liu Endi , a restoration specialist from the Palace Museum Administration, did not deny the termite report, but would only say the report was flawed. 

An administration spokeswoman yesterday said there had been restoration work at the complex but refused to say whether it was linked to termites. 

Xinhua reported that a research team, including Mr Liu, travelled to Deqing county in Zhejiang late last month to assess an innovative termite-trapping technique. 

Exterminators lure the insects into a trap, spray them with pesticide, then release them to kill the rest of the nest through contact. 

The report said that earlier last week, four specialists from Deqing visited Beijing to help wipe out the termites at the Palace Museum. 

The presence of termites at the national monument would be a huge embarrassment to its administrators, because the government earmarks millions of yuan each year for its maintenance. 

The infestation is just the latest to beset Beijing's monuments. The American white moth, a destructive plant-eater, was found in the Temple of Heaven last week.


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## I-275westcoastfl (Feb 15, 2005)

But its forbidden!! haha bad joke :colgate:


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## Chevin (Apr 9, 2006)

I-275westcoastfl said:


> But its forbidden!! haha bad joke :colgate:


LOLOLOL :hahaha:


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## koolkid (Apr 17, 2006)

Great! Its going to end up looking more amazing!


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Palace renovation exposes 18th-century China *
Jim Yardley 
The New York Times
3 August 2006

John Stubbs, an American historic preservationist, had flicked on his flashlight and was slowly ascending a darkened staircase inside the Forbidden City when he stopped at a dusty paneled wall etched with elegant lines of calligraphy. 

"I didn't even see this until yesterday, or two days ago!" exclaimed Stubbs, almost ecstatic, as he stood in the dank, musty air. 

The calligraphy was a poem by the 18th-century Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong, who built the room as part of an intended retirement compound, a private city within the Forbidden City. 

For a few days last week, Stubbs and colleagues from the World Monuments Fund rummaged through the restricted Qianlong Garden section and admitted that the experience left them a little giddy. The fund, a private, nonprofit preservation group in New York, has just begun overseeing the renovation of the Qianlong section, a project that should be finished by 2016. 

"For us, it is wonderful seeing it this way," Henry Tzu Ng, executive vice president of the group, said during the informal tour, "before 10 years from now, when it is restored." 

Anyone who has visited Beijing in the past few years knows that the Forbidden City, the ancient home of Chinese emperors, is in the midst of a total restoration. Plans call for work to be completed by 2020, in time to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the imperial compound. 

The refurbishment is part of the selective preservation work in Beijing before the 2008 Olympics. Heavily visited historic sites like the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven are undergoing multimillion-dollar face-lifts, even as a few ancient residential neighborhoods are being bulldozed for new development. One such neighborhood, Qianmen, is perhaps a kilometer from the Forbidden City. 

The scope of the work inside the high gray walls of the Forbidden City is displayed in the office of Jin Hongkui, the deputy director of the Palace Museum, who is overseeing the overall renovation. 

On Friday, he used a red penlight to highlight the different stages of renovation on a large map of the complex, including the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the central structure of the Forbidden City, which is now shrouded in scaffolding. 

Jin said the renovation program, which began in earnest in 2002, was focused on finishing the largest public buildings before the Olympics and would restore the entire complex by the 2020 deadline. 

He said almost 2,000 construction workers and craftsmen were involved. 

"I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the whole world is watching," he said. "We can't make any mistakes." 

The craftsmen and workers doing the renovation are Chinese, but Jin said foreign conservationists were providing advice on certain projects. Preservationists with the Italian government are consulting on the work at the Hall of Supreme Harmony. 

Jin said the arrangement with the World Monuments Fund was the first major collaboration involving an American conservation group and the Forbidden City. The partnership began in 2003, when the fund committed $3.3 million to restoring the building known as Qianlong's Lodge of Retirement. 

Last March, a broader $15 million agreement, which included $5 million from the Chinese side, was announced to restore all 24 buildings and the elaborate outdoor courtyards of the entire Qianlong Garden. 

The visit last week allowed conservationists from both sides to discuss the renovation and also gave the Americans a new chance to explore buildings sealed from the public since the last emperor, Puyi, was ordered out of the Forbidden City in 1924. On a gray morning they led a few guests through the private chambers and did not seem bothered by the disrepair. For decades the rooms had been used for storage, and Stubbs seemed tickled that curators still had the keys. 

"It is as if the last emperor left in 1924 and this is what has remained," Ng said. 

Qianlong, the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty, ruled from 1735 until his retirement in 1796, then continued as a behind-the-throne presence until his death three years later. He was a major patron of the arts who wrote poetry and collected ceramics. During the 1770s he employed thousands of Chinese and foreign craftsmen to build the complex of buildings and gardens for his retirement. 

The Qianlong Garden is only 0.7 hectares, or 1.7 acres, about one percent of the area of the Forbidden City. But Stubbs said the complex had been built with some of the finest examples of Chinese artistry and craftsmanship, as well as European influences. 

In one building, Stubbs pointed out a large "moon gate," a wall with a circular opening decorated with bamboo and jade to illustrate an ancient Chinese motif about a virtuous official in a time of corruption. In another room he lifted a sheet of protective covering to find a stack of 16 wooden screens with inlaid jade. 

"We knew it was fine," Stubbs said of the Qianlong Garden, "but we didn't know how brilliantly fine it was." 

The group is bringing over American conservation specialists in textiles, wood and lacquer to share the latest preservation techniques. Nancy Berliner, a curator of Chinese art with the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, came last week to offer advice on how to interpret and present the rooms for public display. 

Ng jokingly said he had already decided which building would be used as the host site for the opening reception in 2016: the Fu Wang Ge, or Hall of Wishes Fulfilled. 

He broke away briefly from the tour to lead a guest up a warren of narrow staircases to a third-floor room. It was empty except for a large writing table placed in front of a dust-covered throne. 

He said the room must have been a personal sanctuary for Qianlong, and he stepped onto the balcony to look over the yellow rooftops of the Forbidden City and its high gray wall. "This is one of the few spots where he could look above the wall and see the outside world," Ng said. 

He said he had discovered the room and the balcony only a day earlier. "We finally went up and up and up," he said of his initial visit. "And we realized we had to show this to somebody."


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## Mr. Fusion (Jul 1, 2006)

Does the renovation include removing the Starbucks?


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

I would doubt it.


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## duskdawn (May 13, 2006)

Mr. Fusion said:


> Does the renovation include removing the Starbucks?


Maybe end up more.


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## jlshyang (May 22, 2005)

Gosh, i hope the renovation works won't ruin my trip to Beijing next month.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*China to unveil catalogue of all relics in Forbidden City to public *

BEIJING, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will unveil a catalogue of all cultural and art relics kept in the Forbidden City after relics from the Ming and Qing dynasties are sorted, said Zheng Xinmiao, curator of the Forbidden City. 

"Many ancient cultural relics, including 2,000-plus paintings and calligraphy works and other belongings of emperors and empresses have not been catalogued due to outdated views towards cultural relics," Zheng said Thursday. 

"Now all the items that can reflect culture and history of the palace will be kept as relics through a protection plan," he said. 

"About 100,000 relics and materials will be added to the existing account and all the basic information on them will be unveiled to the public through the new catalogue," he said. 

"The new catalogue will be published to show the essence of China's traditional culture and the protection of these precious 'state-owned-assets' can be better supervised by the public through the publication," he said. 

Covering more than 720,000 square meters, the Forbidden City has over 9,000 rooms, and is located in the heart of Beijing. 

The palace, as the treasury of China's traditional culture, has preserved 1.5 million relics, accounting for one-sixth of the total collection of relics in China's museums. 

In 2005, the Chinese government decided to spend 1.5 billion yuan to revamp the Forbidden City over the next 15 years to better protect both the palace and the cultural relics. 

As part of the protection plan, it will take the museum seven years to sort the relics.


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## great184 (Oct 7, 2005)

That's alot of relics... After its been sorted out, they will put the items back into forbidden city right?


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Restoration Website
http://gjdx.dpm.org.cn/index.htm
*


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## redstone (Nov 15, 2003)

Needs restoration


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)




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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)




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## Magician (Sep 11, 2002)

Oh if i go Beijing now... so dont get the chance to see the big hall??? so sad....


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## big-dog (Mar 11, 2007)

The renovation will take 10+ yrs to complete? must be a hugh project... China can build a super tall in 2 years.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

It's a huge palace. They're renovating on a rotational basis, not all at once.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Exhibit brings luxuries from the heart of Beijing's Forbidden City courtyards to the US* 
30 July 2010

BEIJING (AP) - Deep in a long-forgotten corner of the Forbidden City and up a twisting stairway are four sets of twin doors, shut for more than eight decades. They reveal rare sweeping views to the north, south, east and west above the golden-tiled rooftops of the imperial palace.

The surrounding walls silence the passing tour groups. On the horizon, modern high-rises are softened by the Beijing smog. The view from this private corner has hardly changed since the Chinese emperor Qianlong designed this courtyard for his retirement more than 200 years ago.

"In my 80s, exhausted from diligent service, I will cultivate myself, rejecting worldly noise," Qianlong wrote of the pavilion, where the floors have been stripped to packed earth and straw as part of a major restoration.

Few people have entered Qianlong's courtyards since China's last emperor was forced out of the Forbidden City in 1924, and it will take more years of work until the public can come inside. The restoration of the pavilion where Qianlong enjoyed the view over the Forbidden City rooftops is set to be finished by sometime in 2012. Bringing the entire complex back to life will take until at least 2019.

But now a collection of thrones, large-scale paintings and decor of one of China's most powerful leaders is leaving the country for the first time. In September, the $1.5 million exhibition arrives in the U.S. for a tour that will show a more intimate side of a country often defined by vastness and control.

"This garden is completely different from the rest of the Forbidden City. The rest is formal, rigid, symbolic. This flows like walking up a mountain flows," said Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., where the exhibit of items from the pavilion and courtyards will begin. "You're always finding surprises."

The exhibit will also travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The man who expanded China's borders and brought its wealth to new heights was just as ambitious with the art and design of his surroundings. Qianlong, one of the longest-serving Chinese emperors, stepped aside only after six decades.

He is famous for his encounter with the visiting Lord George Macartney, the British emissary who came seeking better trade relations but was refused. "We have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country's manufactures," Qianlong wrote in a smackdown well-known to foreign executives even today.

Yet, "The exhibit reflects Qianlong's fascination with things in the West," said Henry Ng, executive vice president of the World Monuments Fund, a partner in the restoration with China's Palace Museum.

Ng's favorite example is the glass throne, its panes sandwiched between carvings of blossoms and branches. The emperor had the new and fashionable plate glass imported for decoration, but it was mistaken for other materials, such as gray slate, under layers of dust for years during the restoration.

"Then one day I took a tissue and finally wiped it," Berliner said. "It was a wonderful feeling."

Qianlong never moved into the two-acre (0.8-hectare) courtyard complex tucked into the northeastern corner of the Forbidden City. But he used its tiny, winding spaces and gardens for relaxation, and settled on a throne in the high pavilion to practice calligraphy. He'd write bits of poetry and paste them to the walls.

The courtyards' location protected the space from war and upheaval as China struggled to find its political and economic place in recent decades.

When the doors opened again, the Qianlong courtyards were being used as storerooms, with everything covered in 2-inch (5-centimeter) drifts of dust. As work began, the dust was sifted for bits of treasure.

"They'd pick up every single piece and try to fit it back into the original," said Berliner. "One man said they put each piece into little plastic bags. In the end, they had about 35,000 plastic bags."

Officials have searched the country for craftsmen who remember the old arts and techniques to restore the courtyard complex and the exhibit pieces.

In another part of the Forbidden City, woodworker Zhang Shicun smiled over his glasses as he sat low on a bench over a Qianlong panel with a large gold-plated inlay.

"Before him, the emperors' style of the time was rather plain," Zhang said. "This decor, even this groove along the edge of the panel, there was nothing like it. Qianlong loved the details."

------

Online:

Peabody Essex Museum: http://www.pem.org/


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Feature: Meeting Chinese emperor of Qing Dynasty in an intimate way *

NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese saying "Heaven is high, and the emperor is far away" describes the carefree life enjoyed by ancient Chinese in remote areas. Yet, to modern American public from next week, the Chinese emperor is no longer far away. 

The exhibition "The Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City" will make world debut to display treasures of China's famous Qianlong emperor of Qing Dynasty from Sept. 14, 2010 to Jan. 9, 2011 at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts. 

The treasures of the exhibition will also travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Feb. 3, 2011 in New York City and the Milwaukee Art Museum on June 11, 2011 in Wisconsin. Once the tour concludes, the objects will be reinstalled permanently in their original home in the Qianlong Garden of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Chinese Capital. 

These 90 objects of ceremony and leisure, including murals, paintings, furniture, architectural and garden components and jades will reveal the contemplative life and refined vision of the Qianlong emperor, one of Chinese history's most influential rulers. 

"It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for American public to see this extraordinary works of art and to have a sense of the Qianlong emperor, who is unquestionably the most powerful and wealthy man in the world in the 18th century," Dan Monroe, executive director and CEO of PEM told Xinhua. 

Reigning from 1736 to 1796, the Qianlong emperor moved China to its imperial zenith in terms of territory, wealth, military strength, and culture. Under his leadership, China's economy dwarfed those of England and France, and the Qianlong emperor controlled vastly greater territory than his key contemporaries -- America's George Washington and England's Elizabeth I. 

Completed in 1776, the Qianlong Garden and its artworks represent one of many monuments to the Qianlong emperor's power, wealth, and ingenuity. It is located in the northeast of China's renowned Forbidden City with 27 buildings and numerous artworks within its two-acre site. 

The Qianlong Garden is a very private space that the Qianlong emperor built for himself alone as a retreat to cultivate himself and not to think about politics. Even when he is alive, very few people went there.

Closed since China's last emperor left the Forbidden City in 1924, it is now the beneficiary of intense restoration and conservation in preparation for opening to the public for the first time around 2019. All these 90 objects to be displayed in the U.S. have not been shown in public even in China. 

"We are so pleased to introduce American public to meet the Chinese emperor in an entirely different way, yet in an intimate way," said Lynda Hartigan, chief curator of the PEM. 

Visitors to this exhibition will be invited to walk through the galleries the way the Qianlong emperor would have strolled through his rooms and gardens. Around each corner are opportunities to encounter objects of beauty and exceptional craftsmanship. 

Visitors are also able to try their hand at calligraphy imagining being an emperor with a touch station that will lead them through the brush strokes. 

"Chinese gardens are very different from Western gardens. They are complex, including buildings, rockery, and works of art. So the exhibition is designed to evoke, not to replicate, the feelings of strolling at the Qianlong Garden, and at the same time, to highlight the extraordinary works of art," said Nancy Berliner, exhibition curator and curator of Chinese art at the PEM. 

Wang Yamin, deputy director of China's Palace Museum, told Xinhua that "it is the first time that the Palace Museum has authorized such a large-scale and comprehensive traveling exhibition of original historic cultural heritage objects and interiors." 

"We hope the exhibition will benefit a deeper mutual understanding between China and U.S.," Wang said. 

The Palace Museum is intimately associated with the Forbidden City, which began to be built in 1420. The museum was established on Oct. 10, 1925, on the foundation of a palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties and its collection of treasures. It is a large, comprehensive national museum that embraces the palatial architectural complex, ancient art, and imperial court history. 

The exhibition gives a multi-dimensional showcase of the Qianlong emperor's artistic passion and personal sentiments. It is also a physical manifestation of the ideas -- the Confucian culture and Buddhism-- that prevail in China for years. 

One of the highlights of the exhibition is a rare imperial " fool the eye" mural painting, a 15-foot-wide work depicting women and children in a palace hall celebrating the Chinese New Year. The mural is one of only six such surviving 18th century works. Painted by Chinese court artists who had been trained by a European artist, the mural reflects a successful blending of European and Chinese traditions. 

"The exhibition is in the spirit of internationalism, because it reflects the relationship of China and the West. It combines China's classic arts with Western arts and culture," said Lynda Hartigan, chief curator of the PEM. 

The PEM is the longest of any museum in North America. Dating to the close of the 18th century, the PEM's holdings in Chinese art and Asian export art represent some of U.S.'s first efforts to reach outward and establish mutually enriching, lasting exchanges with other nations. 

Other objects of the exhibition range from the quietly personal to the flamboyantly crafted and hued. Calligraphy written in the emperor's own hand conveys a sense of his refined thinking and brush technique. Panels carved in semiprecious gemstone or rendered in brilliantly pigmented cloisonne are as vibrant and pleasing as the day they were created. 

These 90 objects also experienced quite an adventure from Beijing to U.S.. They have been through the conservation process for over a year, which is part of the joint restoration work by the Palace Museum and the World Monuments Fund on the Qianlong Garden since 2001. 

The restoration work combined traditional conservation methods with latest technology including readhering porcelain tablets to the lattice panel, in-painting losses on the Buddhist panel, etc. 

The exhibition includes a film and other interactive elements highlighting the conservation process as well as the gifted artisans who restored the objects and architecture to their original condition. 

"Art has no boundary and culture is such a wonderful way in bringing China closer to American public. We hope the exhibition will further cultivate ties between the two countries," said Monroe.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Qianlong's secret garden for his old age*
16 January 2011
China Daily - Hong Kong Edition




























In the Forbidden City, a retired ruler made a refuge for himself which is now being lovingly restored.

Even before he abdicated the throne, the Emperor Qianlong was already preparing for retirement. He had a two-acre private courtyard built and filled it with his favorite books, art and a wall mural that brought his garden inside even when he could not go out to enjoy it.

This was the emperor's personal retreat, Juanqinzhai, more known to antiquities experts as the Qianlong Garden. Its name, which alludes to "rest after a lifetime of work", reflected Qianlong's love of scholarship and the arts. He prided himself as an accomplished calligrapher and he is known for his huge collection of art and antiques.

Much of this has been lost, plundered by the turbulent times that China went through before it finally emerged, cleansed and ready for new beginnings. But there is enough left within the courtyard to make it very interesting to the experts.

Built in the 1770s, Juanqinzhai fell into disrepair after China's last emperor, Puyi, was expelled from the Forbidden City in 1924. For decades, it suffered the fate of being forgotten, a decrepit storage space.

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) from the US has played a key role in its restoration with not only funds but also expertise, according to Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum.

The $3-million project can be seen as a good example of international cooperation in cultural relics conservation, says Li Ji, deputy director of the Palace Museum. "The cooperation with the WMF was the first major collaboration between a US conservation group and the Palace Museum."

The WMF starting working with the Palace Museum in 2002 to restore the Qianlong Garden and helped train Chinese conservators as they faced the many complex challenges posed by the fragile historic interior and its unusual mix of materials and techniques.

One such was the wall mural that stretched over the ceiling of the room where a miniature stage was built for opera performances, one of Qianlong's loves. It is a detailed depiction of the palace gardens complete with lilacs and trailing purple wisteria. Craftsmen spent much time and money matching the unusual pigments used for the trompe l'oeil, and this was where the expertise from the WMF came in most useful.

This joint conservation exercise has proved so successful that the WMF, a New York-based non-profit organization, signed a broader agreement to restore all 24 buildings and the elaborate outdoor courtyards of the entire Qianlong Garden.

The expected date of completion will be in 2019, a year before the Forbidden City marks 600 years of existence.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Too many visitors puts Palace Museum at risk: curator*

BEIJING, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The high number of visitors to China's Palace Museum, especially during public holidays, was more than the palace complex could safely handle, according to its newly-appointed curator.

Shan Jixiang, who took the post as the museum curator a month ago, said the museum receives as many as 130,000 tourists a day during peak seasons, a number that has far exceeded its capacity.

Visitors tend to follow the central axis from south to north, which has made the protection of certain parts of the museum more difficult, according to Shan.

In 1949, the number of tourists to the museum was 1 million. The number grew seven-fold in half a century to reach 7 million in 2002. And then just 10 years later the number doubled to 14 million in 2011, according to Shan.

Located at the heart of Beijing, the Palace Museum had been the throne of 24 ancient Chinese emperors and home to a vast collection of the imperial treasuries.

Given its status, the museum is a preferred choice for numerous exhibitions. However, the management of the Palace Museum has been under fire since May 2011 after several accidents.

In May 2011, exhibition pieces on loan from a Hong Kong-based museum were stolen in the palace complex. And on July 31, the museum reported that a researcher had accidently damaged a rare thousand-year porcelain dish.

Whistle-blowers also have accused the museum of running an exclusive club in one of its palaces and paying hush money to insiders who threaten to expose ticket scandals.

The safety of visitors as well as the cultural relics is the most challenging task for the management of the Palace Museum, Shan said.

World-class security systems will be used to replace what's being used, most of which were constructed in the last three decades of the 20th century and were outdated, he said.

Museum authorities will strive to ward off security risks, increase the transparency of their work, and invite the public to submit suggestions regarding museum management, he said.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Restored Zhongzheng Dian complex at Forbidden City in Beijing*










Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2012 shows the restored Xiangyunting (Pavilion of Fragrant Clouds) in the Zhongzheng Dian (Hall of Rectitude) complex at the Forbidden City, Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 27, 2012. Restoration of the Zhongzheng Dian complex has been completed in a six-year protective project. The complex, a Tibetan Buddhism shrine in the Forbidden City, was burnt down by a fire in 1923. (Xinhua/Li Xin) 










Visitors tour the restored Zhongzheng Dian (Hall of Rectitude) complex at the Forbidden City, Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 27, 2012. Restoration of the Zhongzheng Dian complex has been completed in a six-year protective project. The complex, a Tibetan Buddhism shrine in the Forbidden City, was burnt down by a fire in 1923. (Xinhua/Li Xin) 










Photo taken on Nov. 27, 2012 shows the Yuhuage (Pavilion of Raining Flowers) in the Zhongzheng Dian (Hall of Rectitude) complex of the Forbidden City, Beijing, capital of China. Restoration of the Zhongzheng Dian complex has been completed in a six-year protective project. The complex, a Tibetan Buddhism shrine in the Forbidden City, was burnt down by a fire in 1923. (Xinhua/Li Xin) 










A ceremony marking the full restoration of the Zhongzheng Dian (Hall of Rectitude) complex is held at the Forbidden City, Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 27, 2012. Restoration of the Zhongzheng Dian complex has been completed in a six-year protective project. The complex, a Tibetan Buddhism shrine in the Forbidden City, was burnt down by a fire in 1923. (Xinhua/Li Xin)


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Cooperating for posterity*
15 July 2013
China Daily

The Palace Museum in Beijing has a host of historical exhibits that take a lifetime to preserve and maintain. To keep these relics safe for posterity, the museum has stepped up efforts with a new partner. Zhang Zixuan reports from the Forbidden City.

Many imperial treasures gathering dust in the Forbidden City will soon see the light of day again, restored to their former glory under a new rescue and repair project - a cooperation between the Palace Museum and the Beijing Dongcheng district government, a deal sealed by a strategic agreement in January this year.

The new initiative is part of "The Safe Palace Museum" project.

"The Palace Museum is our lifeline so protecting it is our responsibility," says Dongcheng district director Niu Qingshan.

The cultural relics waiting to be repaired all belong to the Palace Museum collection, which fall into seven major categories: wooden furniture, royal lamps and lanterns, carts and palanquins, music instruments, walking sabers and swords, opera costumes, and Chinese silk tapestry.

Expert craftsmen, all heritage inheritors from traditional workshops such as the Beijing Opera Costume Factory and the Beijing Enamel Factory located in Dongcheng district, will be invited to restore the objects in the Palace Museum.

It will be the first time it is done on such a large scale.

"Dongcheng district is home to numerous crafts inheritors, many of whose teachers had worked in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Court's manufacture office," says Palace Museum director Shan Jixiang. "They are very familiar with the objects they're going to repair."

The Palace Museum has a large collection of objects from the seven categories, Shan says.

The numbers are staggering, with 9,640 pieces of opera costumes, 1,448 lamps and lanterns, and some 300 carts and palanquins. Many have succumbed to the ravages of time and wear and tear. The repair project was supposed to take place several months later in the museum's 476,000-square-meter new branch at the north complex currently under construction, but museum director says it cannot wait.

Several rooms within the Hall of Consolation of Mothers (Ci Ning Gong) are now being used as temporary studios, and the work will move into the north complex at the end of this year when it is completed. Visitors will then be able to view the progress of the repairs.

"We cannot afford any delay since many of the masters are advanced in years," says Sun Ying, a state-level inheritor of opera costume making.

In 2003, Sun and the Beijing Opera Costume Factory reproduced more than 200 pieces of ritual equipment once used for royal weddings in the Palace of Earthly Tranquility (Kun Ning Gong).

Sun tells us that restoration is much more difficult than reproduction.

Shan says some of the repaired objects will be used. For example, the Palace of Longevity and Health (Shou Kang Gong) will be restored to its former glory, which means the Palace Museum will need a great number of lanterns and pieces of two-sided embroidery. More than 40 trainees are now working on them with the master craftsmen.

For craftsmanship that is already extinct in Beijing, museum experts are searching far and wide for the best heritage craftsmen from all over the country.

Wang Jianjiang is a sixth-generation craftsman specializing in the art of K'o-ssu silk tapestry. He was invited to Beijing for the project.

The 50-year-old says these tapestries were very precious in the past, so they are only used on the emperor's dragon robes.

"K'o-ssu is more difficult than embroidery. It is woven layer by layer to create a sculptured texture," says Wang, who was prepared for his task with a one-week training session on safety.

"Fabrics are very fragile. It can take up to three years to repair just one piece," says Miao Jianmin, the Palace Museum's director in the Cultural Heritage Conservation Department.

Museum Director Shan says that the whole restoration project will be well documented, so later generations will learn about the materials and techniques.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Palace Museum feeling the squeeze of visitors *
1 July 2014
China Daily	

The Palace Museum is looking for ways to accommodate the overwhelming number of visitors who pour through its doors every year.

New proposals include half-price tickets after 2 pm.

"We would like to encourage visitors to avoid the peak time in the morning and switch to the afternoon, so they can have more comfortable touring experiences," said the museum's director Shan Jixiang.

The Palace Museum will try out the new pricing from Sept 14 to 16.

Annual tickets are also in the works, which allow visitors to enter the museum 10 times a year. Chinese students and seniors are eligible for half-price discounts.

"That will benefit those who love ancient palace construction or the abundant collections and need to visit multiple times," Shan said.

The museum received 15.3 million visitors in 2012, with about 182,000 on its busiest day. It averages 70,000 visitors a day during summer and 20,000 in winter.

"It's necessary to balance the number of visitors between peak and low seasons," Shan said.

The museum will offer free tickets on the first Wednesday of the month from November to April 2015 for groups of up to 200 people.

"We considered providing free tickets for the general public on these days, but after serious evaluation, we decided to take slower steps by beginning with certain groups of people," Shan said.

The first groups will include teachers, voluntary workers, medical practitioners, soldiers and college students.


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## ThatOneGuy (Jan 13, 2012)

Wonderful project.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

The Forbidden Palace by Dongchen Li, on Flickr


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Emperors' residence to be restored *
19 December 2015 
China Daily _Excerpt_


Beijing - Hall of Mental Cultivation Emporer's Audience Room Forbidden City by Le Monde1, on Flickr

One of the buildings at Beijing's Palace Museum, or Forbidden City, most closely associated with imperial life is to undergo a major renovation based on traditional construction techniques, the museum announced on Friday.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation, the residence of the last eight Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperors, was partially restored in the early 1980s, but for years has received in the part open to the public up to 800 visitors at a time during peak hours. 

The Forbidden City was China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911. The 3,800-sq-m Hall of Mental Cultivation, built in 1537, served in part as a place for emperors to meet officials. Emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735) was the first monarch to live there, and the building witnessed the early days of the reign of the legendry Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908).

Palace Museum Director Shan Jixiang said of the restoration: "It's more of a scientific research than construction project. As long as the original components can still be used, we'll not replace them with new materials."

Shan regretted that some previous restorations in the palace employed professional construction companies that were not the best choices, despite their efficiency, because they lacked expertise in traditional Chinese palace construction.

The new restoration will strictly comply with old royal files on the hall, and Shan said the project will enrich their experience on the conservation of palace constructions and explore methods of revitalizing endangered traditional renovation techniques among young generations.

"Each worker at the restoration site will receive a year of training," he said. "Time is not the priority. We are more concerned with quality."

The project is roughly scheduled for completion by 2020 to celebrate the 600th birthday of the Forbidden City.

A major difficulty during the restoration, Shan said, is that the hall is filled with historical antiques that will have to be removed. Nearly 1,900 supreme cultural relics, including a royal painting and calligraphy collection, daily-use articles, and ancient books, have stood in the hall for more than a century.

Only a 1,000-sq-m area of the hall has been open to the public, but the large crowds in that space during peak times have raised safety concerns and have made for a poor visiting experience, Shan said.

"But because of the condition of some of the construction, visitors were only able to see the rooms through windows," Shan promised that visitors will later be able to enter the rooms for closer views of the cultural relics.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Palace Museum confirms ancient relics find*
May 6, 2016
China Daily _Excerpt_










The Palace Museum in Beijing has confirmed the discovery of relics from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) that were buried underground in the heart of the city for more than 600 years. 

The museum, also known as the Forbidden City, said on Thursday that the relics had been found during maintenance work at the historic site.

The Forbidden City was home to China's imperial palace from 1420 in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) until the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Li Ji, head of the Archaeology Department at the museum's affiliated academic research institutes, said the relics were found under the west wing of the museum during work on laying an electric cable last year, but it had taken months to appraise them and confirm their age.

"The broken tiles and porcelain pieces are direct evidence that they come from no later than the start of the Ming Dynasty."

Li also said the foundations for construction work from the Ming and Qing dynasties were found above the Yuan relics.

"These three layers of relics indicate how layouts for buildings changed through time," he said.

He added that no Yuan relics had been found previously because of "scrupulous urban construction work" in the Ming Dynasty.

"Our fieldwork shows that almost all previous construction foundations were cleared out when the Forbidden City was built, to provide impeccable detail for the new palaces."

Li said the current studies are still at a preliminary stage and it is too early to analyze the original architecture.

"Basically, we can be sure it is from an important part of a Yuan Dynasty royal palace, but it's hard to say if it was on the central axis of Beijing at that time," he said, adding that the Forbidden City today stands on this axis.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

South China Morning Post _Excerpt_
*Forbidden City to knock down all modern buildings at former imperial palace in Beijing*
Huge area of recent structures to be torn down over the next three years to better preserve site’s ancient character, says Palace Museum director
June 27, 2016 

The Forbidden City in Beijing is tearing down all the modern buildings and structures on the site of the former imperial palace to better preserve its ancient character, the director of the Palace Museum has revealed.

More than 14,800 square metres of prefabricated buildings and temporary structures that serve as warehouses and offices would be removed over the next three years, director Shan Jixiang told the Beijing Times.

“The Palace Museum is spending the next three years making sure the Forbidden City has only ancient architecture, without a single building of *modern construction to affect its ambience,” Shan was quoted as saying on Sunday at a promotional event. 

“By doing so, [we] can hand over a magnificent and beautiful Forbidden City intact for the next 600 years,” he said.

The palace was opening up 76 per cent of its 160,000 square metres of ancient architecture to the public this year with three additional passages, up from 65 per cent last year and 52 per cent two years ago, Shan said.

Two of the new passages were along the eastern and western walls of the palace, connecting its southern and northern ends on both sides and adding two extra sightseeing routes to the existing central north-south axis, according to the Beijing Evening News.

The other new passage is a 361-metre glass-walled path cutting through the 13,000-square-metre studio for relic restoration, where visitors can observe the restorers fixing historic artefacts. 

The museum wanted to increase the percentage to 80 per cent in the next two years and 85 per cent by 2025, Shan said.

More : http://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...ock-down-all-modern-buildings-former-imperial


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

South China Morning Post _Excerpt_
*‘Bureaucracy hindering efforts to maintain Forbidden City’*
Palace Museum in Beijing says residency requirements should be eased to make it easier to retain and recruit specialised craftsmen who care for former imperial palace
February 9, 2017

The head of China’s famed Palace Museum has suggested granting Beijing household registration to skilled craftsmen who undertake the monumental task of renovating the historic complex.

The director of the Palace Museum, Shan Jixiang, said in an interview it was a challenge to retain skilled craftsmen, the news website Thepaper.cn reported.

Many of the elderly craftsmen are nearing retirement age, Shan said, and they are ineligible to stay on because they lack a Beijing household registration, known as a hukou.

As many as seven craftsmen specialising in refurbishing old architecture were slated to retire last year alone, the report said. Only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops was Shan able to keep them on.

Most craftsmen at the former imperial palace, also known as the Forbidden City, have at least 30 years’ experience under their belt.

A crop of 15 apprentices have been hired in recent years to learn at the feet of master craftsmen to ensure a smoother succession.

After nearly four years of practice under close supervision, the apprentices have acquired the basic know-how to qualify for staff jobs.

However, joining the staff requires a Beijing hukou, which many of the apprentices lack.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*How the Forbidden City’s treasures ended up divided between Beijing and Taipei*
A harrowing, 14-year journey preserved one of humanity’s most important artistic legacies
When bloody civil war engulfed China, both nationalists and communists claimed the treasure as their own
February 3, 2019
South China Morning Post _Excerpt_

Many of the Forbidden City’s ancient treasures were evacuated from the Palace Museum in Beijing when Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China.

The collection took to the road for 14 years, traversing some 75,000km. This is the harrowing journey that preserved one of humanity’s most important artistic legacies.

The Palace Museum in Beijing attracted the attention of scholars, researchers, writers and editors from around the world when it opened in October 1925. Many international universities made applications for academic research, and word of the collection’s outstanding beauty spread like wildfire.

The museum acquired an unparalleled reputation, and exhibitions organised overseas proved to be a great success.

But worldwide political instability and China’s domestic situation convince the museum’s curators – who know how vulnerable the valuables are to plunder – to hatch plans to safeguard them.

On September 18, 1931, the Japanese empire used the Mukden Incident — a staged bomb attempt on its South Manchuria Railway — as a pretext to justify a full-scale invasion of Manchuria.

The collection of treasures, which had survived despite centuries of looting and hostilities, was once again under threat from impending war.

Fearing the Japanese army would march south and cross the Great Wall, Palace Museum director Yi Peiji decided to move a substantial part of the collection out of Beijing for safekeeping.

More : https://www.scmp.com/news/china/art...ures-ended-divided-between-beijing-and-taipei


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

*Turning back the clock*
4 June 2019
China Daily _Excerpt_

The Palace Museum and Cartier team up to host one of the cultural institution's largest shows on the theme of craftsmanship and restoration over the centuries, Wang Kaihao reports.

For Wang Jin and Qi Haonan, two restorers of antique timepieces at the Palace Museum in Beijing, their months spent in quasi-seclusion in 2017 at a watchmaking studio in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, was a crucial period of exploration.

They took six movements of timepieces dating back to the late 18th century to the mountainous town to work on their restoration with their counterparts from Cartier, the French jewelry and watch-making house. A documentary recording the project was released online last year.

The Palace Museum, which is also known as the Forbidden City, was China's imperial palace between 1420 and 1911.

"The collaboration was not only a dialogue between the restorers but an exchange of techniques and expertise," Wang says. "We worked together in a climate of utmost sincerity, overcame a number of challenges and accomplished our mission in full."

Their success also lead them to setting up a cross-cultural mission to celebrate craftsmanship.

After the restoration, researchers from both sides began to explore the possibility of presenting a joint exhibition to showcase the splendor of timepieces through the ages. It has now expanded into a much wider plan, and one that doesn't just cover horology.

Grand show

Beyond Boundaries: Cartier and the Palace Museum Craftsmanship and Restoration Exhibition opened on Saturday at the Meridian Gate Galleries of the museum in Beijing. It places more than 800 artifacts dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to modern times on display, making it one of the largest exhibitions in the history of the Palace Museum.

As a highlight of the exhibition, which is to run through July, the six timepieces - four clocks with exquisite decorations and two gold watches benefiting from the joint restoration - are displayed in Time Memories, one of three themed sections of the exhibition.

The Palace Museum is generally believed to hold one of the world's best collections of mechanical clocks from the 17th and 18th centuries, thanks to the wealth of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) emperors and their habit of ordering the latest timepieces from Europe.

More : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/04/WS5cf5b9bda310519142700d70.html


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

* Forbidden City at 600: How China's imperial palace survived against the odds *
CNN _Excerpt_
Sep 19, 2020

When the American writer David Kidd arrived in Beijing in 1981, having not seen China's capital for three decades, he found the city almost unrecognizable.

The fabled city walls were gone; its temples turned into schools and factories. Only in the vast imperial palace complex of the Forbidden City "could I imagine that the city surrounding it was unchanged," Kidd wrote in his memoir "Peking Story." It created the illusion, he added, "of supernatural space and time."

The Forbidden City, which turns 600 this year, was carefully designed to conjure such an illusion.

It is the world's largest palace complex, covering more than 7.75 million square feet (720,000 square meters) and separated from the rest of Beijing by a 171-foot-wide (52 meters) moat and a 33-foot-high (10 meters) wall, with gate towers guarding its entrances. The fortress-like design was intended to protect the emperor, but also to emphasize his pre-eminence: The emperor was, after all, heaven's representative on Earth and, in its scale, majesty and separateness, his palace was built to ensure that neither his subjects, nor foreign visitors, ever forgot that.

Despite its monumental scale and central importance in Chinese history, however, the Forbidden City's continuing presence at the heart of the country's capital has been a story of survival against the odds. Fires, wars and power struggles have all threatened the imperial complex during the last six centuries.

More : Forbidden City at 600: How China's imperial palace survived against the odds


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