The former Presidential Palace
李文瑾（总统府）
Hello everyone! The former Presidential Palace is located at 292 Changjiang Road in Nanjing. It is an on-the-spot Museum of Chinese Modern History and became the national cultural relics protection unit in 1982. In 2004, it became a 4A-rank scenic spot and in December 2006, it was cited as Top Ten Scenic Areas in Jiangsu Province.
Originally, it was the mansion of Prince of Han during the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, it served as the office of Liangjiang Governor-general and the imperial temporary palaces of emperor Qian Long and emperor Kang Xi. During the period of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was turned into the Palace of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the late Qing Dynasty, it changed back into the office of Liangjiang Governor-general. During the period of Republic of China, it became the offices of National Government and later Presidential Palace.
On New-year’s day of 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen took the oath as the provisional president of Republic of China. On May 20, 1948, Chiang Kai-shek took the oath as president and then named the place Presidential Palace.
There are three visiting routes here, including the middle route, the east route and the west route. Today we are going to visit the middle and east sections.
This gate tower is the entrance to Presidential Palace. It was founded in 1929, in an imitation of European Triumphal Ach style. It has three arched doors, and each of them was fixed with black hollowed-out iron gates. On both sides of the gate, there are eight Ionic columns, and on the head of the column we can see a pair of scroll patterns. The above door is decorated by ornamental line patterns of Western architectural style. There is a trapezoidal wall on the gate tower and a flag tower on the roof.
The three gold-plated wooden Chinese characters on the lintel which mean Presidential Palace were written by Zhou Zhongyue in 1948, the former chief of National Government. The first floor of the gate tower contains gatehouse and guardhouses and the second floor contains guard dormitories. The whole gate tower is round outside but square inside, implying that National Government was friendly to foreign countries and strictly complied with laws and regulations when handling domestic affairs. On April 24, 1949, People’s Liberation Army (PLA) mounted the gate tower and raised red flag. Since then the gate tower became a landmark building representing the end of Chinese modern history.
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