After the Southern Song court moved southward, in 1131, the first year of Shaoxing, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty ordered the guarding official Xu Kangguo to use the original prefectural seat to prepare for the construction of a temporary palace. From the fourth year to the twenty-eighth year, the palace city and the southeastern outer city were expanded. The entire imperial city area extended from west of the middle section of the Qiantang River in the east to Phoenix Mountain in the west, from Tiaozhou Bay in the south to Wansongling in the north.
In 1276, the first year of Jingyan, the Yuan army invaded Hangzhou. Soon, more than half of the palace buildings were destroyed by fire. Later, the remaining palaces were turned into Baoguo Temple, Xiaoxianlin Temple, Zunsheng Temple, Xingyuan Temple, and Prajna Temple.
By the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the main hall had basically collapsed, and the entire imperial city gradually became ruins. The original site of the imperial city is now used as warehouses for the logistics department of the military region and residential houses. Only the ruins are buried deep underground.
There are many relics and artifacts from the Five Dynasties to the Yuan Dynasty in the surrounding area.
