Talking about the imperial palace, most people may first think of the magnificent Forbidden City in Beijing. While Shenyang City in Liaoning Province also boasts one, the Shenyang Imperial Palace. It is the imperial palace where the first three emperors of the Qing Dynasty lived before their successors established the capital in Beijing. It was added to the World Cultural Heritage List. The Shenyang Imperial Palace and the Forbidden City in Beijing are known as two most well-preserved ancient palace complexes existed in China. As a national first-class museum with an excellent collection of historic and fine arts in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Shenyang Imperial Palace has attracted visitors from home and abroad with its precious ancient buildings, distinctive cultural relics and breathtaking beauty of the four seasons.

Covering an area of over 60,000 square meters, the Shenyang Imperial Palace has a total of 114 ancient buildings and more than 500 rooms. According to the architectural layout and construction sequence, it can be divided into three parts: east, middle and west parts. As the former imperial palace of the early Qing Dynasty, the Shenyang Imperial Palace has distinctive characteristics of Manchu culture. In contrast to the “low palace and high hall” architectural pattern of the Forbidden City, the Shenyang Imperial Palace was built in the “low hall and high palace” pattern. The Chongzheng Hall in front of the Phoenix Building is 11.85 meters high, and the Qingning Palace behind the building is 16.33 meters high. The five bedchambers were all built on high platforms, surrounded by 2.4-meter-high courtyard walls. This architectural pattern is related to the living habits of the Manchu people. In early times, Manchu people mainly lived in the mountainous areas, so they used to build houses in high places to protect themselves from wild animals and enemies. And since the land in Shenyang is flat, Manchu people had to make high platforms to build bedchambers on.