I’m chilled. Unlike the Forbidden City complex made impersonal by its huge scale the Shenyang Imperial Palace is made to a much smaller, human proportion and for me at least is much more interesting; you can take it all in. Also, the previous “restorations” were limited to a small part of the grounds leaving the rest unspoilt, aged but still easily identifiable as original. With a little spit on a kleenex I rubbed the head of a porcelain figure on the friezework to a high polish, the way it would have looked when new; spit and polish would be the best remedy for the entire palace, especially to the Bannerman’s Hall which is the earliest structure and that in the most original condition, and would not alter the place which seems substantially sound. Some six months or so ago I watched as two workers sloppily rolled on buckets of red paint to the surrounding, inner walls, and having seen the “creativity” of the first restoration I shuddered to think what was to come.

And it has come, most likely not a restoration but another interpretation that will turn the place into a silly caricature of the imperial residence, the first seat of Manchu power, that it once was.