Mukden Palace (Chinese: 盛京宮殿) is located at the center of Shenyang (瀋陽), Liaoning (遼寧) Province, China. It was the former imperial palace of the early Manchu-led Qing (清) dynasty, also known as Shenyang Imperial Palace (瀋陽故宮).
According to its layout, Mukden Palace can be divided into three parts: East Road, Middle Road and West Road, while the Middle road is the main body.
The most representative building of the Middle Road is the Fenghuang Building, a palace which was built on the 4-meter-tall blue-brick platform, the place where the emperor holding banquets and Sightseeing point.
The buildings of the West Road were built in 1783, including Stage (戲台), Jiayintang (嘉蔭堂), Wenshangge (文溯閣) and Yangxizhai (仰熙齋).
Wenshangge was the place where the emperor of the Qing dynasty studied, watched dramas and also the room of storing Siku Quanshu (四庫全書).
Siku Quanshu is the largest collection of books in Chinese history, it contains an annotated catalogue of 10,680 titles along with compendiums of 3,593 titles. However, the Wenshangge’s Siku Quanshu is now stored in the Gansu Library in Lanzhou (蘭州).
Mukden Palace is not only an ancient palace complex but also famous for its rich and precious collections both in domestic and international.
Outside Mukden Palace there is a shopping street, good for wandering, just don’t expect you can buy real antiques here.
