Zhongnanhai

Zhongnanhai is a walled compound in Beijing that serves as both the workplace and residence for the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. Originally an imperial garden, it sits next to the Forbidden City. The name “Zhongnanhai” is commonly used as a shorthand for China’s central government and its leadership.

Inside the compound, the party’s general secretary, the paramount leader, and other senior officials handle daily administrative tasks, including meetings with foreign visitors. China Central Television often broadcasts footage of these meetings, but typically shows only the interiors of buildings. While maps of the complex existed before the People’s Republic was founded, the layout has been heavily altered since then, especially during a major renovation wave in the 1970s. Many buildings today share names with older, pre-1949 structures, but their layouts and functions have completely changed.

The compound is split into two main sections, reflecting the parallel authority of the highest state and party institutions. Northern Zhongnanhai houses the State Council’s headquarters, including offices for its most senior leaders and main meeting rooms. Southern Zhongnanhai is the headquarters of the CCP Central Committee, its staff, and its top coordinating bodies—the Standing Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat.

The basic shape of Zhongnanhai dates to the Ming dynasty, when the Yongle Emperor ordered the subdivision and reclamation of land around Taiye Lake to create a garden retreat. By the late Qing dynasty, it had become the de facto center of government: Empress Dowager Cixi and later Prince Regent Chun built residences there instead of in the Forbidden City. After the Republic of China was established, President Yuan Shikai remodeled the compound to serve as the formal center of the Beiyang Government. In late 1949, CCP Chairman Mao Zedong moved in after initially staying in the suburbs. He received many foreign leaders there, including Nikita Khrushchev, Che Guevara, Richard Nixon, Georges Pompidou, Kakuei Tanaka, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Mao’s favorite spots were the Library of Chrysanthemum Fragrance—his personal residence, filled with bookshelves—and the Poolside House next to the large indoor swimming pool, where he would spend much of the day swimming or reading books and reports. After his death, the Chrysanthemum Library and many of his belongings were preserved as a museum, now closed to the public.

**Location**

The name “Zhongnanhai” means “Central and Southern Seas,” referring to two lakes within the compound: the Central Sea and the Southern Sea. It is sometimes translated as “Sea Palaces.” These two lakes were part of a series of projects during the construction of the Imperial City. The corresponding Northern Sea, or Beihai, to the north is now a public park. The three interconnected lakes—Northern, Central, and Southern—are collectively called Taiye Lake. Adjacent Shichahai connects to Beihai through Qianhai.

Taiye Lake originally formed the core of an imperial garden called Western Park (Xiyuan) or Western Court (Xinei), with parklands along the shores enclosed by a red wall in the western part of the Imperial City. Most of the pavilions, shrines, and temples survive from that period. While the Northern Sea had a religious focus, the shores of the Central and Southern Seas were dotted with worldly palaces.

**History**

During the Jin dynasty, Emperor Zhangzong built the northern lake in 1189. The northern section of Zhongnanhai was the original Taiye Lake, with an attached palace called the Palace of Great Peace (Daninggong). In the Yuan dynasty, Taiye Lake was included within the Imperial City and expanded to cover roughly the area of the Northern and Central Seas today. Three new palaces were built around the lake.

After the Ming dynasty moved its capital to Beijing in 1403, construction of the now-extant Imperial Palace began in 1406. The new Ming palace was built south of the Yuan dynastic palace, so a new Southern Sea was dug south of the existing lake. The excavated soil, along with that from the palace moat, was piled up to form Jingshan, a hill north of the Forbidden City. At that time, the three lakes were connected by channels and collectively called Taiye Lake, part of the extensive royal park Xiyuan, which stretched from the western wall of the Imperial City to the western wall of the Forbidden City. In the middle Ming period, the Zhengde and Jiajing emperors built many more palaces, Taoist temples, and pavilions around the lakes, spending more time there than in the Forbidden City.

After the Qing dynasty established its capital in Beijing, the government reduced Xiyuan’s size to the area centered on the three lakes, enclosed by a small wall—portions of which form the basis of Zhongnanhai’s current boundary. During the late Qing, several gatehouses were built on both sides of Jin’ao Yudong Bridge, giving Zhongnanhai and Beihai Park separate wall enclosures within Xiyuan. Successive Qing emperors built pavilions and houses along the lakeshores of Zhongnanhai.