Meiling Palace is located on Xiaohongshan Mountain to the east of Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum in Nanjing. It was built in 1931 and is also known as Xiaohongshan Official Residence. Since Mr. and Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling often came here for vacation, it is called ‘Meiling Palace’. It is one of the very spectacular and elegant buildings in Nanjing. The exterior of the building features yellow exterior walls, red pillars, and a roof covered with green glazed tiles.
There are more than 1,000 phoenixes carved on the roof, and beautiful colored paintings are drawn under the eaves, giving people a sense of Chinese palace-like magnificence. At the entrance of the building is parked a Buick car specially given to Soong May-ling by the United States. The building has one underground floor and three above-ground floors, basically arranged as it was during the lifetimes of Mr. and Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek and Soong May-ling. If you overlook the panorama of Meiling Palace, you will unexpectedly find that Lingyuan Road is like a necklace, the mountain ring road on Hongshan Mountain is like a pendant on the necklace, and Meiling Palace is like an emerald inlaid on the pendant. It is said that this creative idea was put forward by Soong May-ling. The layout of the building: The underground floor is mainly for cooking, with a kitchen, a boiler room, a laundry room, etc. The first floor is mainly a place for staff to work, including a reception room, a guard room, guard dormitories, a secretary’s bedroom, a secretary’s office, etc. The second floor is mainly a place for receiving guests. There is an imposing banquet hall. The Western-style long dining table can accommodate nearly 20 people to have meals at the same time. Through the hall, you can reach the ‘convex’-shaped terrace. There are 34 phoenixes carved on the 34 white marble railing pillars. Now there is a ‘First Lady Cafe’ here. You can drink coffee and order an ice cream on the terrace. The third floor is mainly a place for the owner to live and is also the essence of Meiling Palace. The confidential secretary room is close to the bedroom. The secondary bedroom is outside and is arranged according to the living habits of soldiers. It is stable and clean. There is a wedding photo of Mr. and Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek hanging on the wall. The master bedroom is inside. It is fully furnished with rosewood furniture. There are large floor-to-ceiling windows on both the east and south sides. Because Soong May-ling believes in Christianity, the living room is made into a prayer room named Victory Chapel. The small dining room for two people to have private meals has an elevator leading to the kitchen on the underground floor. After the dishes are prepared, they are directly sent up through the elevator. There are candles for candlelight dinners on the delicate dining table. In the bathroom, you can see the bathtub where Soong May-ling took milk baths. Now the bathroom seems a bit old, but all the tiles used back then were imported tiles. Opening hours: Open all year round from 07:30 to 18:00. Preferential policies: Children: Children under 6 years old (inclusive) or under 1. 4 meters (inclusive) in height are free. Seniors: Seniors over 70 years old (with valid identity documents) are free; seniors aged 60 (inclusive) to 70 years old (exclusive) (with valid identity documents) are half price. Students: Minors over 1.4 meters (exclusive), aged 6 (exclusive) to 18 years old (inclusive), full-time undergraduate and below students (need to bring student ID cards to the ticket checkpoint for verification) are half price. Military personnel: Active servicemen of the People’s Republic of China, retired military cadres and retired sergeants (sergeants), and preferential care recipients enjoying national pension and subsidy are exempt from admission tickets with valid identity documents.Personnel holding the ‘Preferential Treatment Certificate for Veterans of the People’s Republic of China’ and the ‘Preferential Treatment Certificate for the Surviving Family Members of Martyrs, Servicemen Who Died on Duty and Servicemen Who Died of Illness of the People’s Republic of China’ are exempt from admission tickets in accordance with relevant regulations.
Free for fire rescue personnel: Fire rescue personnel (including on-duty, retired, disabled fire rescue personnel, students of fire rescue colleges and universities, and full-time government firefighters) are exempt from admission tickets with valid identity documents.
