Prince Gongs Residence Travel Guide

Brief Introduction
Prince Gong's Residence is located at Qianhai West Street, Xicheng District, Beijing. Gongwang Mansion is the Qing Dynasty´s mansion with the largest scope, and also till now the most well-kept one.

Originally it was the mansion of Shen He. In the middle of its rockery there is a stele with "Happiness" on it that was written by Emperor Kangxi for congratulating on his mother´s birthday. This is one of the "three best things" in Gongwang Mansion. This stele is 7.9 meters and goes through the whole rockery.

In Qing Dynasty, Gongwang Mansion was one of the few mansions having this honor.

Some halls were made of nanmu and combined the features of both mansions and gardens. from the south to the north, the halls are divided into five rows with three groups of courtyards from east to west.

At the front of the axis, there are two gates and the second one is larger than the first one. Originally, there stood the main hall named the Yin'an Hall, which has collapsed. The extant Jiale Hall features the style of imperial palaces. The three quadrangles along the eastern line feature Ming Dynasty architecture style.

Features
Prince Gong's Residence is the most intact mansion preserved in Beijing. It consists of a mansion and a garden. It occupies 46.5 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare). Since the residence was extremely luxurious when it was firstly built by He Shen, the halls in it followed the style of Palace of Tranquil Longevity in the Forbidden City.