Museum
Prince Gong Mansion
17 Qian Hai Xi Jie, Xi Cheng Qu, Bei Jing Shi, 100035
Sprawling Qing-dynasty courtyard mansion and garden built for a disgraced minister, now a museum of imperial luxury.
This guide to Prince Gong Mansion in Beijing traces the rise of Heshen, a minor palace guard who became the aging Qianlong Emperor's most powerful minister and built this vast estate with the fortune he accumulated. It follows the day in February 1799 when the new Jiaqing Emperor moved against him, and what investigators found when they tallied what he had hoarded here. You'll also hear about the garden he filled with rockeries and imported stone.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.