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The Palace Museum - Palace of Tranquil Longevity Area / The Treasure Gallery

Qianlong's Ningshou Palace

The Ningshou Palace area is located on the Outer East Road of the Inner Court of the Forbidden City, where the Empress Dowager and Empress Dowager spent their twilight years. It is also known as the "Mini Forbidden City", and is now the treasure gallery of the Palace Museum.

The Ningshou Palace (Palace of Tranquil Longevity 宁寿宫) area is located on the Outer East Road of the Inner Court, in the northeast corner of the Forbidden City. During the Ming Dynasty, this area was used as a retirement place for the senior concubines, but during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns of the Qing Dynasty, the Ningshou Palace area was renovated to provide a place for the Grand Empress Dowager and Empress Dowager to spend their twilight years. The Ningshou Palace was also designed according to the principle of “Court in Front and Living Quarters Behind” layout as the Forbidden City itself, it has a main hall, sleeping quarters, gardens, theatres, and so on, thus also known as the “Mini Forbidden City”.

Through Xiqing Gate 锡庆门 into the South Square of Ningshou Palace area, there is a 29.4-meter long, 3.5-meter high glazed screen wall. The screen is made of 270 glazed blocks, with nine dragons, named Nine-Dragon Wall. The nine colored dragons break the waves and fight each other, highlighting the majesty of the Emperor.

Manywhere Trivia:
Look closely at the Nine-Dragon Wall from the left and the third dragon’s belly is in a different color, because that piece isn’t a glazed tile, it’s wooden!

There are two gates opposite the Nine-Dragon Wall, the first one is Huangji Gate (Gate of Imperial Supremacy 皇极门) and the other one is called the Ningshou Gate (Gate of Tranquil Longevity 宁寿门). The Huangji Gate is in the form of a glazed arch, opposite to the Nine-Dragon Wall. The Ningshou Gate is modeled after the Qianqing Gate, which sits on a platform of white marble, with a pair of Gilt-Bronze Lions on each side.

Through the Ningshou Gate, you can see the main building of the Ningshou Palace area: Huangji Hall. Huangji Hall (Hall of Imperial Supremacy 皇极殿) was built in the twenty-eighth year of Emperor Kangxi (1698) in the Qing Dynasty, and was renovated in the Qianlong period. Huangji Hall is nine rooms wide, with a double-eaved hip-and-gable roof indicating it one of the highest-ranked buildings in the Forbidden City. After the Qianlong emperor abdicated the throne to Jiaqing, he held banquets and received courtiers here in his capacity as Supreme Emperor, and later the Empress Dowager Cixi celebrated her 60th birthday here, too.

Ning Shou Palace was the place where Qianlong worshipped the gods, and also where the Empress Dowager Cixi lived during the reign of Guangxu.

Manywhere Trivia:
The Ningshou Palace was prepared by Qianlong for himself, but he never lived here for one day. Cixi took it and made it her own.

The northern half of the Ningshou Palace area can be divided into three roads: the left road is the Ningshou Palace Garden area, commonly known as Qianlong Garden, which is also divided into four scenic areas from south to north, with the northernmost Fuwang Pavilion being the highest point in the garden. There are buildings such as Yueshi Tower 阅是楼, Jingfu Palace 景福宫 and Changyin Pavilion (Pavilion of Cheerful Melodies 畅音阁), which is the favorite theatrical stage of Qianlong and Cixi. Changyin Pavilion has three stories, from top to bottom respectively called Fu, Lu, Shou stages, and the three stages can hold performances at the same time. The Dehe Tower stage in the Summer Palace was built base on Changyin Pavilion.

The middle road complex is made up of halls such as the Yangxing Hall (Hall for Cultivating Character 养性殿), Leshou Hall (the Hall of Joyful Longevity 乐寿堂), Yihe Pavilion (Pavilion of Sustained Harmony 颐和轩), which are now Treasure Galleries of the Forbidden City. Among them there are Jade Penglai Fairyland, Jade Hill of Dayu Water Map, etc. The artifacts were not only large in size, but also of high ornamental value.

The most numerous residents in the Forbidden City are concubines, let’s meet their world, the Six Palaces of West Road.

The Palace Museum - Six Palaces of West Road

Becoming Empress Dowager Cixi

The six palaces on the East and West Roads is the living area of concubines in the Forbidden City, and the architectural rank of the West Six Palaces is significantly higher, mainly because the Empress Dowager Cixi used to live here. To this day, Chuxiu Palace, Yikun Palace, Tihe Hall and the Changchun Palace have mostly retained the same furnishings as in the past.