Shenyang Imperial Palace was the imperial palace for the emperors of Qing Dynasty before they moved to Beijing capital. It is the best preserved imperial complex after the Forbidden City of Beijing. In the context of architecture artistic, Shenyang Imperial Palace has shown the unique characteristics of Han, Mongolian and Manchurian which possesses a very high artistic value.
This construction of this huge imperial complex was begun in year 1625 and took 11 years to complete. There are over 90 buildings with more than 300 rooms within the palace. The palace can be generally divided into eastern section, middle section and western section. Dazhengdian (The Hall of Great Affairs) is the highlight of eastern section. This is where the emperors ascended their throne throughout the history. On other hand, the structures within the middle section are lined up properly in south to north axis with Chongzhengdian as the center point of the axis. While the highest structure within the Shenyang Imperial Palace is the three-storey Phoenix Tower.
The western section was not included in the original plan of the Shenyang Imperial Palace but was added by Emperor Qianlong within his reign. Wensu Pavilion is the main architecture within the section which was used to store priceless books. Differ when compared with any other imperial structure, Wensu Pavilion is designed with black roof as they believed that black color represent water and is able to extinguish a fire to protect the treasures within the pavilion.