Forbidden City restoration an experiment in U.S.-China teamwork
The $3-million refurbishment of a Beijing studio belonging to one of China's most artistic emperors demanded an extraordinary international partnership.
China Photos / Getty Images
Reporting from Beijing — For Bonnie Burnham, it was like entering a Chinese version of an Egyptian tomb, a small lavishly appointed studio in Beijing's Forbidden City that had remained untouched for centuries.
On a cool autumn day in 1999, the president of the World Monuments Fund followed her local guides into an area where few had set foot since 1924, when China's last emperor vacated the palace and locked the doors to the studio behind him.
What she remembers most is the musty air and thick coat of dust that covered the floor, the delicate pieces of furniture, even the lushly paneled walls etched with their courtly lines of calligraphy.
"There was a sense that time had stopped there," she recalled.
Burnham's heart raced. Because underneath the grit lay one of the five most historically important interiors to survive China's imperial past -- a window into the private world of one of the Middle Kingdom's most artistic emperors.
Today, Burnham stood among dignitaries from the Forbidden City's Palace Museum to unveil the refurbishment of the tiny two-story lodge known as Juanqinzhai, which will soon be open to the public.
The $3-million restoration, which took nearly a decade to complete, marks an extraordinary international partnership of Chinese artisans and Western expertise.
It also represents a rare instance, officials say, in which the Chinese government has sought foreign assistance and know-how to restore one of its precious historical relics.
The results have been so successful that the fund, a private, nonprofit New York-based preservation group, is extending its alliance with Chinese cultural officials to restore the Qianlong Garden's 26 other pavilions and four courtyards.
The face-lift's first phase involved numerous detailed excavations of the studio's interior, trips to the U.S. by Palace Museum staff for strategy sessions and a nationwide search in China for artisans capable of the delicate renovations.
"None of us had any kind of road map. Neither the Chinese nor the American side had any experience with this specific type of restoration," said Nancy Berliner, the curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass.
The Juanqinzhai studio was built in the 1770s by the Qianlong emperor for his personal use after his retirement -- a two-acre private retreat nestled in the northeastern corner of the Forbidden City.
