In the fifth year of Hongwu (1372AD), the construction of Jingjiang Royal Residence under the Solitary Beauty Peak began. It was accomplished in the twenty- fifth year of Hongwu. At that time, the government limited the size of the buildings. The Residence consists of the Luck Receiving Gate, the Luck Receiving Palace, a chamber and a garden, constructed in that order. Around the main buildings, there are four halls, four pavilions and more than forty other secondary buildings, covering a total of 19.78 hectares. It was really large-scale. From the year when it was accomplished to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, 257 years had passed. During this time, 14 seigniors of 12 generations lived there. According to Guang Zhiyi, a record of national geography by Wang Shixing of Ming Dynasty, there were two thousand royal members living in the Royal Residence. Hence, large amounts of food were needed. The residents of the mansion exploited common people cruelly and brought a heavy financial burden on the local government. As a result, in the ninth year of Shunzhi (1652AD) the peasant army conquered Gui ling. The owner of the Royal Residence at that time, general Kong Youde, committed suicide and set the Royal Residence on fire. Before the construction of the Royal Residence, there were other buildings under the Solitary Beauty Peak. In Tang Dynasty there was a school palace. In Song Dynasty, the Iron Cattle Temple was built. It was renamed to DA Yuan Temple in Yuan Dynasty and then it changed to Wan Shou Palace. After the destruction of the Royal Residence, in the fourteenth year of Shunzhi (1657AD)Gongyuan was built on the same site. In 1921, it was home to Sun Yat-sen, preparing for the Northern Expedition. In the first years of the Republic, the Royal Residence became a school. In the winter of 1925, it was rearranged into the Zhongshan Park. In 1937, the government of Guangxi province took over the site. Destroyed during the anti-Japanese war and rebuilt shortly afterwards, the residence is now the site of the Guangxi Normal University.
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