Entrance to the Puppet Emperor's Palace 伪满洲皇宫
I wasn’t intending to stay long in Changchun in Jilin province as I was originally intended to go to a different part of the province. However, this is where the high speed train stops so I didn’t really have much choice here. I will only leave the next day so I decided to do a little exploring here in the city. Jilin province didn’t really figure much in imperial China until much, much later. As a result it doesn’t have much really ancient historical sights. However, the province was thrust into the imperial stage with the conquest of China, then the Ming dynasty, by the Manchu people, who established the Qing 清 dynasty, incidentally, the last dynasty before the emergence of modern China.
Rock with Puppet Emperor's Palace 伪满洲皇宫 Inscribed on It
When it comes to Chinese history, I would say I would be more familiar with the older dynasties rather than the latter ones, in particular, the Qing dynasty. The Qing, Manchu people are considered non-Han, and therefore foreigners. This would be the second time that imperial China was conquered by foreigners, the first time was the Yuan dynasty which involved the great conqueror Genghis Khan. In the case of the Qing, it took a while before the Ming resistance was quelled and there are a lot of personalities from the Ming which figured in the Qing dynasty. One of Changchun’s most significant historical sights is the Puppet Emperor’s Palace. Not knowing what else to do here, I decided to give it a try.
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