Life in the halfway house of the tent emperors
Museum offers a glimpse into Manchu rulers and their early taste of imperial grandeur
When it comes to size, Shenyang Palace Museum is a mere fragment of its counterpart known as the Forbidden City in Beijing. But the two have blood ties: the palace in Shenyang was the abode of founders of the Qing Dynasty, China's last feudal rulers, before their successors conquered the entire country and moved further inland to Beijing, and into its grand royal palace in 1644.
Between 1644 and 1911, successive Qing emperors took immense pride in living in the Forbidden City, built by rulers of the Ming Empire (1368-1644), which they had destroyed. At the same time, they returned repeatedly to Shenyang, in present-day Liaoning province, and to its humble palace.
