Eight Great Ministries of Manchukuo (伪满八大部)

The Eight Great Ministries of Manchukuo are a group of government buildings erected in the 1930s along Xinmin Street in Changchun, Jilin province, which the Japanese authorities renamed Xinjing and made the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo. They were designed to house the principal organs of the administration, including the ministries of justice, military affairs, transport, and civil affairs, and they sit in the planned government district near the palace of the puppet emperor Puyi. The buildings were designed in what is known as the Imperial Crown style, which combined modern, reinforced-concrete European-influenced massing with East Asian features such as tiled, pagoda-like roofs and decorative eaves. The effect was intended to express a fusion of Japanese rule with a Chinese imperial identity. Most were built between 1933 and 1936 and were laid out as large symmetrical blocks facing the avenue. After 1945 the buildings were taken over for other uses, and many are now part of university and hospital campuses, notably the medical faculty of Jilin University and affiliated hospitals. As a result, they are not open as museums and interiors are generally closed to casual visitors. What remains is a streetscape of large, solid, grey and cream facades, several of which are protected as cultural relics. The exteriors can be seen on a walk along Xinmin Street and the nearby avenues, and the group is usually visited together with the Puppet Emperor's Palace, the Kwantung Army headquarters site and other Manchukuo-era structures. Interpretive signs are sparse, so background reading helps. A walk takes about an hour, and the area is free to view at any time of day.