Ruins of the Da'an Hall

Ruins of the Da'an Hall

The ruins of the Da'an Hall are a cultural tourism attraction.

In 1990, the West Wing Project uncovered the ruins of the Da'an Hall, an important structure of the front court of the Central Capital’s palace city. The Da'an Hall was where the Jin Dynasty held celebrations and received homage. In 2003, to commemorate the 850th anniversary of Beijing’s founding, a memorial archway was erected on the site of the Da'an Hall ruins to inform future generations.

The main structure of the memorial archway is made of bronze, covered in mottled patina, exuding a sense of historical vicissitude. Xu Liren, director of the Xuanwu District Cultural Commission, told reporters that a que (memorial archway) was a specialized structure traditionally placed in front of ancient palaces, temples, and tombs, serving both decorative and symbolic purposes. The newly built memorial archway stands 12 meters tall, with its overall structure supported by four square pillars, symbolizing meanings such as "the round sky and square earth, connecting to the center, and peace in all four seasons." On the four sides of the memorial archway—east, south, west, and north—are placed replicas of four bronze sitting dragons, artifacts from the Jin Dynasty. The bronze sitting dragon was an imperial object of the Jin royal family, symbolizing good fortune. The top of the archway adopts the traditional Chinese architectural design of dougong (interlocking wooden brackets). The memorial archway covers an area of about 760 square meters, and the base is inscribed with “Record of Beijing’s Founding” written by the renowned historian and geographer Hou Renzhi. On the granite ground around the base, there are also carvings of the site plan of the Jin Central Capital and a comparative map showing its location relative to the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties' Beijing.