Tianen (Emperor’s Love) Land Bureau

Tianen (Emperor’s Love) Land Bureau is a provincial-level protected relic. In 1904, a small Mogolian palace of a prince was built to the north of Xinglong Road East in Taonan in imitation of prince mansion at Dongdan and Xidan in Beijing and Prince Tu’s mansion in Zhongqi. In 1906 (31st year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign), the government of the Qing Dynasty wanted to resume Wutai’s title of prince. So, in name of awarding border development and wasteland reclamation, the government gifted a golden board with Emperor Guangxu’s inscription of “Emperor’s Love Land Bureau”. The board, 9.84 feet long and 3.28 feet wide, was put on the lintel of the second gate of the Mogolian Wasteland Reclamation Bureau. From then on, the bureau began to be called “Emperor’s Love Land Bureau”.

In 1928, the 9th Panchen Lama left Tibet and arrived in Taonan. He did Buddhist service in the “Emperor’s Love Land Bureau” for more than 40 days. In Jan.1946 during the period of Liberation War, the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), provincial government and provincial military command headquarters moved from Yushu County to Taonan. The Secretary of the CPC Liaobei provincial committee Guo Shushen, Governor Li Youwen and Military Commander Ni Zhiliang used the bureau as their offices. In 1948, the Administrative Committee decided to put eight countries including Taonan, Tao’an, Taobei, Kaitong, Zhanyu, Zhenlai, Anguang and Dalai under Heilongjiang Province, which, then, set up a prefecture-level central committee for the eight counties in Taonan. The office of the central committee was in the “Emperor’s Love Land Bureau”.