[8][9] The former royal residence was the Taiji Palace (太極宮), built in the previous Sui dynasty.

[10] In 632, chancellor Ma Zhou charged that the retired Emperor Gaozu was living in Da'an Palace (大安宮) to the west, which he considered an inhospitable place as it was built on low-lying lands of Chang'an that was plagued by dampness and heat during the summer.

[11] Ever since the bloody palace coup of the Xuanwu Gate Incident in 626, it seemed that father and son had drifted apart to an extent that their relationship never healed.

[12][13] He ordered the construction of the summer palace for his retired father, Emperor Gaozu, as an act of filial piety.

[14] However, Emperor Gaozu grew ill and never witnessed the palace's completion before his death in 635,[11] and construction halted thereafter.

Empress Wu commissioned the court architect Yan Liben to design the palace in 660 and construction commenced once again in 662.

[19] After passing through the Danfeng Gate, there is a square of 630 metres (2,070 ft) long with at the end the Hanyuan Hall.

[24] The Sanqing Hall was located in the northeast corner the Daming Palace and served as a Taoist temple for the imperial family.

[24][25] The area around the palace complex grounds is currently planted with locust trees, willows, flowers, and bushes on all sides.

[28] Between 1959 and 1960, the earliest surveys and excavations of the Hanyuan Hall site were carried out by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

[21] The State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) and UNESCO drew up and adopted a two-phased plan by 24 July 1995 to safeguard the Hanyuan Hall site.