Zhongnanhai () is a compound which houses the offices of and serves as a residence for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council. It is a former imperial garden, and located adjacent to the Forbidden City in Beijing. The term "Zhongnanhai" is often used as a metonym for China's central government and its leadership at large.
The party and state leaders, including the general secretary of the CCP as well as the paramount leader, and other top party and state leadership figures carry out many of their day-to-day administrative activities inside the compound, such as meetings with foreign dignitaries. China Central Television (CCTV) 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 the 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. Northern 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. Southern Zhongnanhai is the headquarters of the CCP 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 Yongle Emperor began a project to subdivide and reclaim land around Taiye Lake in order to create a garden retreat. 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 late 1949, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong moved into the complex after initially staying in the suburbs. 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 no longer accessible to the general public.
Location
The name of the Zhongnanhai complex, immediately west of the Forbidden City, means "Central and Southern Seas" referring to two lakes, the Central Sea (中海) and Southern Sea (), within the compound; it is sometimes translated as "Sea Palaces". The two lakes were part of a series of projects carried out during the construction of the Imperial City. The corresponding "Northern Sea", or "Beihai" () to the north is now a public park. The interconnected Northern, Central and Southern Seas are jointly called the Taiye Lake (); adjacent Shichahai (, ) is connected to Beihai through Qianhai.
The Taiye Lake originally formed the core of an imperial garden called Western Park (Xiyuan; ) or Western Court (Xinei; ), with parklands on the shores, enclosed by a red wall in the western part of the Imperial City. 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 worldly palaces.
History
During the Jin dynasty (1115–1235), Emperor Zhangzong of Jin built the northern lake in 1189. The northern section of Zhongnanhai was the original Taiye Lake, with an attached palace called the "Palace of Great Peace" (Daninggong). During the Yuan dynasty, which lasted from 1271 to 1368, Taiye Lake was included within the Imperial City. It was also expanded, covering approximately the area occupied by the Northern and Central Seas today. Three new palaces were built around the lake.
After the Ming dynasty moved its capital to Beijing in 1403 by order of the Yongle Emperor, construction of the now extant Imperial Palace began in 1406. The new Ming palace was built to the south of the Yuan dynastic palace, as a result, a new Southern Sea was dug to the south of the existing lake. The excavated soil, together with that from the construction of the palace moat, was piled up to form Jingshan, a hill to the north of the Forbidden City. At this time, the three lakes were connected through channels and collectively called the Taiye Lake, part of the extensive royal park called (, Western Park) that extended from the western wall of the Imperial City to the western wall of the Forbidden City. In the middle period of the Ming dynasty, Zhengde Emperor and Jiajing Emperor built many more palaces, Taoist temples and pavilions around the lakes and spent more time here rather than in the Forbidden City.
After the Qing dynasty established its capital in Beijing, the government reduced the size of Xiyuan to the area centered around the three lakes enclosed by a small wall, portions of which form the basis of Zhongnanhai's current boundary. During the late Qing dynasty, several gatehouses were built on both sides of , giving Zhongnanhai and Beihai Park separate wall enclosures within Xiyuan. Several successive emperors built pavilions and houses along the lakeshores of Zhongnanhai, where they would carry out government duties in the summer. During the reign of the Empress Dowager Cixi, both the Empress Dowager and the Emperor would often live in the Zhongnanhai compound, traveling to the Forbidden City only for ceremonial duties.
During the Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1901, allied troops occupied Zhongnanhai. Almost all artifacts and decorations in the compound were looted. Later, the Eight-Nation Alliance commander also lived in Zhongnanhai. When Puyi was crowned Emperor, his father as the Prince Regent lived for a short time in the compound.
Zhongnanhai continued to be politically significant during the first years of the Republic of China, as the Beiyang Government under Yuan Shikai placed its presidential palace in the Zhongnanhai compound from 1912. This decision was made because the regime wished to house its government close to the historical center of power, the Forbidden City, even though it could not use the Forbidden City itself because the abdicated Emperor Puyi still lived there. The current main gate, Xinhuamen or "Gate of New China", was created by Yuan Shikai. The present "gatehouse" was previously a pavilion located on the southern shore the Southern Sea, close to the southern wall. Entry to the compound was instead directly from the Forbidden City. Yuan wished to create a new entrance from Chang'an Avenue, independent of the Forbidden City. Thus the pavilion was modified to become a gatehouse, with nearby walls cut back, resulting in the angled walls near the entrance today. Yuan renamed Zhongnanhai Palace of the New China or Xinhua Palace () during his brief reign as Emperor of China. When the Republic of China government moved its capital to Nanjing, the Zhongnanhai compound was opened to the public as a park.http://www.25dx.com/beijing/2006/200607/2006-07-09/206729.html
After the CCP's Capture of Beijing in 1949, the party's senior leadership began plans to relocate their headquarters to the old capital, but they did not initially agree on the location of their central workplace. Mao and the other party leaders initially made their headquarters at Xiangshan Park, in the city's suburbs. As part of the planning for the first Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Zhou Enlai decided that, with some modifications, Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai would be ideal, but he did not initially recommend it during meetings to become the party headquarters. In these early months, Zhou would commute into Beijing for work. However, because of the poor quality of the roads, he would often stay at Zhongnanhai instead of traveling home in the evening. It was Ye Jianying, the interim administrator of Beijing, who ultimately recommended Zhongnanhai as the party headquarters for security reasons. Mao initially refused to move into Zhongnanhai because of its imperial associations. Zhou Enlai nonetheless agreed to the move, as did the majority of the Politburo. Since then, Zhongnanhai has served as the principal center of government in the People's Republic of China.
When the CCP leaders first moved into the compound, many of the buildings were dilapidated and gardens overgrown from years of neglect. Zhongnanhai also lacked either a modern administrative office complex or a purpose-built auditorium for government meetings. These deficiencies prompted the construction of West Building compound and the complete remodeling of Huairen Hall by 1954, along with numerous other architectural changes. Early party and state leaders were assigned residences in Zhongnanhai on an ad hoc basis, often using houses built for servants of the Qing court, or by repurposing buildings intended for other purposes.
In contemporary times
Since Zhongnanhai became the central government compound, it has been mostly inaccessible to the general public. The exception to this was during the years of relative freedom following the end of the Cultural Revolution, when the compound was open to members of the public, who could obtain tickets to visit the compound from relevant government authorities. Following the political turmoil that culminated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, security was greatly increased. Access has now been closed to the general public, with numerous plain clothed military personnel patrolling the area on foot. However, cars are not strictly prohibited from stopping on stretches of adjacent roadway and cabs are allowed to stop except during important conferences or events. Nonetheless, in April 1999, approximately 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners were able to organize a silent vigil surrounding Zhongnanhai.
The most important entrance to the compound is the southern one at Xinhuamen (Xinhua Gate, or "Gate of New China"), surrounded by two slogans: "long live the great Chinese Communist Party" and "long live the invincible Mao Zedong Thought." The view behind the entrance is shielded by a traditional screen wall with the slogan "Serve the People", written in the handwriting of Mao Zedong. The Xinhuamen entrance lies on the north side of West Chang'an Avenue.
Zhongnanhai is considered the de jure residence of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee members and other senior leaders for electoral purposes. Though it serves as their formal residence, many senior party leaders do not actually live in Zhongnanhai, preferring to live in homes elsewhere in the city. Several more recent leaders, such as then General Secretary and paramount leader Hu Jintao reportedly chose to live in the Jade Spring Hill compound in western Beijing due to overcrowding inside Zhongnanhai. China's current leader Xi Jinping also has a home in Jade Spring Hill. There continues to be no standardized system for awarding certain houses to leaders of a certain rank in Zhongnanhai. After a senior leader's death, their spouse is often permitted to stay in the house indefinitely. Several of these houses were occupied by the families of their original post-revolution residents into the 1990s.
Internal layout