The story of Puyi, the last emperor of China, is a sad tale of political intrigue, a story that was played out in one of China's most volatile periods of history. Puyi, manipulated from cradle to grave, was the last of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) line, given power by the devious Empress Dowager Cixi. He ascended the throne at the age of eight.

His mettle as a true emperor was never to be tested however, as the 1911 Republican Revolution, led by the revered Sun Yatsen (Sun Zhongshan), removed the child-emperor from his post in the same year as his coronation. After remaining in the Forbidden City for some years, living the life of a breathing relic, he was expelled by the Nationalist Party (Guomindang) for his less than revolutionary past. Given "immunity" by the Japanese, the young child was moved to his new residence in Jilin Province.

From 1932 to 1945, Puyi was resident, more or less involuntarily, in the Puppet Emperor's Palace (Weihuang gong). He stayed here as nominal head of the newly established state of Manchukuo, established as a way for the Japanese to try to legitimize their claim to the territory of Dongbei (northeastern China), and then the rest of the country.

His residence here came to an end with the Communist victory, when the emperor was arrested and sentenced to reform and re-education in the communist style, even being exiled to the Soviet Union for a time. Puyi ended his sad life as a gardener, probably happy for once to be beholden to few men.

Like the life of the protagonist himself, the remains of the palace today are of decaying sadness. The gardens and courtyards are all fairly badly maintained. The palace is located in the northeastern corner of Changchun, and was not only an open prison for the young Puyi, but also the site of the "central government" of the Manchukuo state. Today the palace serves as a museum, wax works and testament to the evils perpetrated by the Japanese in their long reign in the north of China.

The palace itself is a miniature of the emperor's exiled home, the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is a complex composed of several buildings in a variety of taste and style, including architecture of Chinese, Japanese, and European form. The palace can be divided into two parts: the front palace for administrative purposes and the rear palace for residence. The largest and most impressive of the buildings, the Tonde Palace was not lived in by the emperor since he believed it to be bugged. The best of the blocks is the Qian Ming Building which houses the throne, a variety of gimmicky wax models of Puyi, one of his wives and others, and documents of his life, from stately childhood to Japanese pawn.

The rear palace gives visitors a glimpse of the grandness that was the facade of life here: a swimming pool, a tennis court, a few gardens, courtyards and even a bomb shelter, are the accoutrements of the emperors empty life (a life that is chronicled within on diary pages that are attached to the wall). There are also exhibitions here to the atrocities that the Japanese manufactured in their inhumane reign in northeast China. This is struck home with images of the war, including those concerning the Japanese armies Unit 731 Germ Warfare Experimental Base, and various torture equipment. The captions here are in Chinese, although most of the pictures speak for themselves. Visitors are made to wear "shower caps" on their shoes to protect the original carpet.

How to get Last Emperor's Palace & Exhibition Hall: Take bus No.10 from the railway station.
Opening Hours: 9am-4:30pm.