Zhongnanhai facts for kids
Zhongnanhai is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council (Central government) of China. Zhongnanhai houses the office of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The term Zhongnanhai is closely linked with the central government and senior Communist Party officials. It is often used as a metonym for the Chinese leadership at large (in the same sense that the term "White House" refers to the U.S. executive branch).
The state leaders, including Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Communist Party, and other top CCP and PRC leadership figures carry out many of their day-to-day administrative activities inside the compound, such as meetings with foreign dignitaries. China Central Television frequently shows footage of meetings inside the compound, but limits its coverage largely to views of the interior of buildings. Though numerous maps of the complex exist from before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the interior layout of Zhongnanhai has been altered significantly since then, including a wave of major renovations in 1970s. Today many buildings share the names of older, pre-PRC structures, but have completely changed in layout and purpose. The complex is divided into two main sections, reflecting the parallel authority of the highest level of state and party institutions in the country. North Zhongnanhai is used as the headquarters of the State Council and includes the offices of its senior most leaders as well as its principal meeting rooms. South Zhongnanhai is the headquarters of the Central Committee, including its staff and its highest level coordinating institutions, such as the Standing Committee, Politburo and Secretariat.
The current basic outline of Zhongnanhai emerged during the Ming dynasty when the southernmost of the two lakes in the complex was created in 1421. By the late Qing Dynasty, Zhongnanhai was used as the de facto center of government, with Empress Dowager Cixi and later Prince Regent Chun building residences there instead of the Forbidden City. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the new president, Yuan Shikai remodeled Zhongnanhai to become the formal center of what would become known as the Beiyang Government. In 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong moved into the complex after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Mao received many important foreign leaders in Zhongnanhai, including Nikita Khrushchev, Che Guevara, Richard Nixon, Georges Pompidou, Kakuei Tanaka and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, among others. Mao's favorite places in Zhongnanhai were the Library of Chrysanthemum Fragrance (his personal residence, filled with bookshelves) and the Poolside House, next to the large indoor swimming pool, where he would spend much of the day swimming or reading books and reports by the pool. After Mao's death, the Chrysanthemum Library along with many of his belongings was preserved as a museum which is not accessible to the general public.
Location
The name of the Zhongnanhai complex, located west of the Forbidden City, means "central and southern seas/lakes", referring to two lakes (the "Central Sea" (中海) and "Southern Sea" (南海)) located within the compound; it is sometimes translated as "Sea Palaces". These two lakes are part of a series of projects carried out during the construction of the nearby Forbidden City. Also part of the same system is the "Northern Sea", or "Beihai" (北海), now a public park. The Northern, Central and Southern Seas are jointly called the Taiye Lake (太液池); the Shichahai (什剎海, lit. Sea with Ten Temples) is connected to Beihai at the north.
The Taiye Lake was originally an imperial garden called Xiyuan (Western Park, 西苑) or Xinei (Western Court, simplified Chinese: 西内; traditional Chinese: 西內), with parklands on the shores, enclosed by a red wall in the western part of the Imperial City, Beijing. Most of the pavilions, shrines, and temples survive from this period. Whereas the Northern sea had a religious focus, the shores of Central and Southern seas were dotted with a number of palaces.
Images for kids
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A schematic diagram of Zhongnanhai. At the bottom (south) of the diagram is Xinhua Gate. The island on the foreground lake is Yingtai Island. To the northeast of Yingtai is Qinzheng Hall while to the northwest is Beneficence Garden. Huairen Hall is in the center-west and Ziguang Hall is in the north.
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A replica of West Flower Hall built in Tianjin
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Ziguang Hall, circa 1879
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Huairen Hall in 1954
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Qinzheng Hall in its pre-1980 configuration during the signing of the Seventeen Point Agreement
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Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi and Zhang Wentian outside of Dianxu Hall in the Garden of Abundant Beneficence
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Yingtai Island sometime before 1949
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The Pavilion of the Water and Cloud, on the eastern bank of the Central Sea.
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The Hall of Purple Light (Ziguang Ge) today, used for state receptions.
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Late 18th-century painting showing the reception for the victorious Qing Army from the Jinchuan Campaign (1771–1776) at the Hall of Purple Light in Zhongnanhai
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The Empress Dowager Cixi and servants on a boat in Zhonghai in the early 1900s.
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Procession of Leo Karakhan, USSR Ambassador to China 1923–26, outside the Xinhua Gate of Zhongnanhai.
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Leaders of the People's Republic, from left, Zhu De, Mao Zedong, Chen Yun and Zhou Enlai outside the Hall of Purple Light (Ziguangge) in 1954.
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Chinese President Hu Jintao with U.S. President George W. Bush and former U.S. President George H. W. Bush in Zhongnanhai on August 10, 2008.
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Office buildings inside Zhongnanhai
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The western wall of the Zhongnanhai compound and Imperial City of Beijing
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Road inside Zhongnanhai
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From the central part of Zhongnanhai across the Middle Sea, to the bridge that divides Zhongnanhai from Beihai Park, with the White Stupa of the Beihai Park seen in the distance
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See also
In Spanish: Zhongnanhai para niños
