Puppet Emperor's Palace & Exhibition Hall – Old Palace of Emperor Puyi

Puppet Emperor’s Palace & Exhibition Hall was a palace constructed by Imperial Japanese Army for Emperor Puyi, as his official residence for administration activities of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Today it has been converted as the Museum of the Imperial Palace of the Manchu State, which is located at Changchun, Jilin Province in the northeastern part of the People's Republic of China. This is also known as the Illegitimate Manchukuo Imperial Palace Museum. The museum has been accredited with 4A classification by China National Tourism Administration and the museum is being attracted by local and international tourists.

End of Puyi Era

The palace is magnificently sprawled in 137,000 square meters exposing its grandiose features. This is considered as the historical evidence how the Japanese Imperial army encroached in to Northeast part of China and established their rule through the puppet government. The last ruler Puyi was resided here from 1932 to 1945. During the Second World War, when the Soviet Union declared war against Japan, the fall of Puyi was inevitably happened. The Red Army invaded Manchuria and defeated Japanese army and Puyi was captured. In 1962 the Palace was declared as a museum and opened for the public. There were regular renovations and in 2004 it underwent a major renovation.

Miniature Forbidden City

The Palaces was built as a copy of Forbidden City in Beijing. It has two portions, which are divided in to inner and outer court. Covering an area of 43,000 square meters, it encompasses in exhibiting various historical moments of China from ancient activities to the modern China. The two main halls are the Jixi building located in the western part of the complex and Tongde building in the eastern part of the complex. The main complex is further developed by Qianmin Building, Jilale Hall and Huanyuan Building. The buildings are designed with European, Russian, Japanese and Chinese architecture style.

Jixi Building: This is a Russian style complex constructed for the Emperor and his family. The building consisted of reading room, office, bed room, family hall and Buddhist chapel. There was a separate quarters for the Empress Wan Rong and also for the concubine Tan Yuling.

Tongde Hall: This is the largest and most beautiful building in the complex. It has luxurious interior decoration. The palace was also known as "Salt Palace" as it was previous used as Jilin Salt Tax Collection Office and was later renovated by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Qinmin Building: This was the office building used by Puyi.

Zhixiu House: This is a separate building from the complex and was used as dining hall by Puyi. This was later converted as a school for palace employees, till the Tongde building was completed.

Changchun House: This is an exact duplication of Zhixu House, built as separate structure from the main complex.

Huaiyuan Building: Built in 1934, this building was the secretariat and also used as co-ordination office activities.

Siheyuan: It is another building structure constructed during early days of 20th century and used as executive department office.

Travel Tips:

The exact location of the museum is No.5th North Guangfu Road, at Changchun City, of Kuancheng District. From the city there are lots of bus services and tourist bus services are plying to the museum. Entry fee to the museum is CNY 80 per head. May to October is the peak season.