Ruins of Balhae's Palace City

　　The ruins of Balhae's Palace City are located 6 kilometers east of Hunchun City, Jilin Province, and date back to the Tang and Five Dynasties periods. Balcheon served as the capital of the Bohai State from 785 to 794 AD during the reign of King Wen of the Bohai State, and was the seat of the Eastern Capital, Longyuan Prefecture. At that time, it was briefly the capital of the Bohai State and was known as the second-largest city in Asia.

　　The city site is roughly square in shape. It is divided into an inner and an outer section, with the outer city wall stretching 2,894 meters in circumference. Each of the four sides of the outer wall has a central gate, and remnants of a moat can be found outside the walls. The inner city’s south and north walls are each 218 meters long. There is a gate in the middle of the south, east, and west walls. The inner city contains eight architectural remains: two along the central axis — the southern one being the audience hall and the northern one the residential palace, connected by a corridor. On each side of the axis lie three sets of side halls. To the southeast and directly south of the city site, there are also three temple ruins where fragmented Buddha statues and some architectural components have been unearthed. The site has yielded roof tiles such as tubular eaves tiles, impressed-pattern tiles, flat tiles, peony-pattern tiles, as well as green-glazed or yellow-green-glazed glazed tiles. Many tiles bear inscribed characters.

　　The layout of the city resembles that of the Bohai State’s Upper Capital and Central Capital, both modeled after the Tang Dynasty’s Chang’an. It holds significant historical value. (National Cultural Heritage Administration)