Presidential Palace (China Modern History Museum)

The Presidential Palace, now the China Modern History Museum, stands at 292 Changjiang Road in Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu. The site has served a long chain of rulers: it began as a Ming-era prince's residence, later became the office of Qing dynasty viceroys, and was then used by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In 1912 Sun Yat-sen took the oath there as provisional president of the Republic of China, and from 1927 it was the seat of the Nationalist government until 1949. The compound is laid out in three axes, with the central axis holding the main gate, the office buildings and the Ziyi Hall, the eastern axis with residential quarters, and the western axis with a classical garden. Visitors walk through the offices of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, the reception halls and a small Western-style building known as the Ximen or Ziyi structures, and the garden with its pond, pavilions and rockeries, which dates from the Qing period. Exhibitions on the museum side cover the history of modern China from the Opium War to 1949, with documents, photographs and reconstructions. A visit takes about two hours, and the garden is a pleasant place to slow down after the exhibits. Weekday mornings are quiet, while weekends and holidays bring tour groups. The site is close to the Daxinggong area, so it combines well with a meal in the nearby streets, and Metro Lines 2 and 3 serve Daxinggong Station about ten minutes on foot away. Signage is available in Chinese and English, and audio guides can be rented at the entrance.