Former Site of the Provisional Government Senate

Former Site of the Provisional Government Senate

The Former Site of the Provisional Government Senate is a cultural tourism attraction.

Former Site of the Provisional Government Senate

Former Site of the Provisional Government Senate The Former Site of the Provisional Government Senate is located at No. 10 Hunan Road. It now serves as the headquarters of the Jiangsu Provincial Military Command. In the 34th year of the Guangxu reign (1908), the Qing government, in an attempt to deceive the public about "preparing for constitutionalism," issued the "Regulations for Advisory Councils in Each Province."

In the first year of the Xuantong reign (1909), Duan Fang petitioned for the construction of an advisory council, which was designed by Sun Zhisha in the style of French Renaissance architecture. On September 1 of the same year, the Jiangsu Advisory Council was established, with Zhang Jian serving as its speaker. During the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, representatives from 17 provinces that declared uprisings—45 people in total—gathered here on December 10 to discuss the organization of a provisional central government. On December 29, Sun Yat-sen was elected as the provisional president, and the country’s name was announced to be changed to the Republic of China, with 1912 designated as the first year of the Republic. After Sun Yat-sen assumed the office of provisional president, the former site of the Jiangsu Advisory Council became the location of the Senate of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China. The Nationalist Government passed China’s first bourgeois-democratic constitution, the "Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China," in the Senate.

Sun Yat-sen resigned from the position of provisional president on April 1, 1912. Later, the Senate was repurposed as the office of the Central Party Headquarters. From 1937 to 1945, it was temporarily used by the Wang puppet regime. After 1949, it was taken over by the Jiangsu Provincial Military Command. The current compound covers an area of 6,300 square meters, with the main buildings being the remaining structures of the original Jiangsu Advisory Council, forming a traditional Chinese courtyard consisting of a front and rear section, along with east and west wing rooms, covering an area of 4,600 square meters. The front section has a total width of 10 bays, measuring 73.6 meters, with a protruding entrance hall in the middle, featuring a Mansard roof and a central bell tower. The interior depth is 10.5 meters, with corridors at the front and back, each about 2.90 meters deep. The rear section is 10 bays wide, measuring 57 meters, with an interior depth of 8 meters and corridors at the front and back, also 2.90 meters deep. The central courtyard originally had a large hall. In 1929, during the state funeral for Sun Yat-sen, his remains were transported from Beijing to Nanjing and placed in this hall for a public memorial service.

This hall was demolished during the Cultural Revolution. The building was recognized as an outstanding example of modern architecture by the Ministry of Construction and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 1991. It was listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Nanjing in 1982 and is now a national key cultural relics protection unit.