Hanlinyuan Site

Hanlinyuan Site, located south of Chang’an Avenue inside the Ministry of Public Security, is the the previous Honglu Temple of the Ming Dynasty. In the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, Hanlinyuan was renovated based on the old Hanlinyuan of the Ming Dynasty. After the reign of Emperor Yongzheng (the fourth son of Emperor Yongzheng), Hanliyuan turned into a very important governmental institute which functioned to collect talented people. Emperors of the Qing Dynasty emphasized the importance of Hanlinyuan and often visited and held feasts at the site.

In 1900, located inside the past embassy area of Beijing, Hanlinyuan was famous for its collection of the books and was once the largest and oldest library in the world. It was even compared to the Oxford in China. However, the largest library was burned in 1900 and tens of millions of volumes of books were burned.