But back to 19 13 years ago, this was not the case here at all. At that time, it was just a red wall of the whole imperial city, and there was no doorway. Inside the wall is the south bank of Zhongnanhai Taiye Pool. The Ming building facing the street was not facing the street at that time, and there was still some distance from the city wall. Some flower trees were planted around the building. This building, formerly known as "Bao Yue Building", was built during the reign of Qing Qianlong. There are some legends about the motive of building this building. It is said that it was built by Emperor Qianlong for his favorite Hui concubine ChristianRandPhillips. The so-called ChristianRandPhillips is a Hui nationality in Xinjiang. After she was elected to the Qing Palace, she missed her hometown and the social life of the Hui people from time to time. So, she built this Ming building, and turned the south side of the street facing the building into a "Hui camp" (which later became the name of Hutong) and moved into a Hui tribe to live. In this way, ChristianRandPhillips, who misses her hometown, often jumps upstairs to comfort her homesickness. But after a long time, it is hard to believe the rumors, so I will briefly explain and show the evolution of this building.
Speaking of xinhua gate's pioneering era, it can be traced back to 19 13. Yuan Shikai stole the fruits of the Revolution of 1911 and became the first president of Beijing.
During the Revolution of 1911, Yuan Shikai coerced Empress Yulong (the first wife of Emperor Guangxu), the last ruler of the Qing government, and Puyi, the little emperor six years younger than him, to sign the abdication edict. At this time, the military and political power is in Yuan's hands. At that time, in order to take care of the overall situation, Sun Yat-sen asked him to act as president. Yuan Shikai thought that his strength was in the north and refused to take office in the south, so he launched a mutiny in the third town of the army controlled by his subordinate Cao Kun, causing tension in Beijing, thus achieving his conspiracy purpose of staying in Beijing and never going south to become the president of the Republic of China. At that time, the so-called provisional congress decided to take Zhongnanhai as the seat of the presidential palace, and specially opened the main entrance of the presidential palace facing south on West Chang 'an Avenue. This is the initial development of xinhua gate now.
Xinhua gate's opening up is well thought out. At that time, some people advocated western architectural style, while others advocated ancient style. Finally, the two sides agreed to adjust measures to local conditions and put the Bao Yue Building into use. As for the naming of the gate, it was renamed as "Zhonghua Gate" because the main entrance of Zhengyangmen (Qianmen) in the imperial city was originally called "Daqingmen". At the same time, the main entrance of the newly opened presidential palace was named "xinhua gate"; (The original Zhengyangmen "Zhonghua Gate" and the east and west gates of Chang 'an Street were demolished after liberation).
It took a lot of thought to develop the construction method of this project in xinhua gate. Starting from the renovation of Bao Yue Building, a section of the imperial city in front of Bao Yue Building was demolished first, and then two splayed walls were built, which just connected the imperial city with Bao Yue Building. In the north of the building, a huge shadow wall is built by the lake. Seen from the outside, the lake in Wang Yang is impenetrable, which plays the role of hiding wind, gathering gas and hiding Olympics.
The commendable advantages of this project are "repairing the old and using the waste" and "making the past serve the present". It is done just right, and it has reached the point where nature is created beautifully, which makes people look very pleasing and comfortable. Many people who know about the project praise this project as creative, seamless and without any reluctance. In particular, the splayed walls on both sides of the door are naturally shaped with low height, and there is no feeling of being dragged and forcibly pieced together. The original brick carving pattern on the wall is not as big as usual. All this shows the higher design and technical level of the older generation of workers' masters in Beijing.
Opposite xinhua gate is the residential area on the south side of Chang 'an Avenue, which is rugged and ugly. Although it has been tidied up, it is still not neat enough. Therefore, on the south side of the road from Nanchang Street in the east to Fu You Street in the west, a cement wall covered with blue bricks with a length of several hundred meters was built. In the design of the wall, the upper section is bent vertically, and the lower section is a "drum", which is cut every few meters. The wall of this format was a combination of Chinese and western at that time, which was very unique. Up to now, most of this wall is still intact.
A north-south street west of the presidential palace was originally called "ash factory" in the Qing Dynasty. At the southern end of the street, it is called "behind the post office" (the post office is later the Ministry of Communications). This street has changed a lot. In the late Qing dynasty, there were some vegetable gardens along the street, and there were so-called "well nests" to supply water for residents and horses, mostly near the imperial city. There are also some houses that are intermittent and not connected together. In the second year of the Republic of China (19 13), because of the presidential palace, the original street name was probably indecent, so it was renamed "Fu You Street". Subsequently, the number of houses gradually increased, and old vegetable gardens, open spaces, wells and nests were squeezed out.
After 1928, the Kuomintang government was located in Nanjing, and Beijing was renamed Beiping, which was called Beiping Special City. Zhongnanhai has become a park. I remember that the horizontal plaque of Zhongnanhai Park inscribed by an old man hung at the bottom door of Xinhua Gate Building. It was not until Peiping was liberated that it was renamed Beijing. Our Central People's Government is located in Zhongnanhai, and xinhua gate is the main entrance of the government.