Dazheng Hall 大政殿

The centerpiece of Nurhachi’s Palace is undoubtedly the Dazheng Hall. Compared to the other palaces, the Dazheng Hall feels smaller, but more elegant since it stands there all by itself. The Dazheng Hall doesn’t look like the halls that were built much later, in fact it looks more like a pavillion than a hall which tends to be long. Instead the Dazheng hall has a structure not unlike a pavillion, which is quite unique since most Chinese palaces tend to build grand halls for the emperor’s palace.

Nurhachi may be forgiven if the palace was small here in Shenyang, he probably didn’t forsee that his descendants would one day defeat the Ming dynasty and establish a dynasty of their own – the Qing. From the Dazheng Hall, everything is accessible for the emperor. The ten pavillions outside with the factions they represent are all the emperor needed to rule their fledgeling empire. It would be three generations later that they would soon take over the entire country.

[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/ShenyangImperialPalace.kmz} zoom=19]