China Central Television (CCTV) frequently shows footage of meetings inside the compound, but limits its coverage largely to views of the interior of buildings.

Though numerous maps of the complex exist from before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the interior layout of Zhongnanhai has been altered significantly since then, including a wave of major renovations in the 1970s.

The current basic outline of Zhongnanhai emerged during the Ming dynasty when the Yongle Emperor began a project to subdivide and reclaim land around Taiye Lake in order to create a garden retreat.

By the late Qing dynasty, Zhongnanhai was used as the de facto center of government, with Empress Dowager Cixi and later Prince Regent Chun building residences there instead of the Forbidden City.

[2]: 2  Mao received many important foreign leaders in Zhongnanhai, including Nikita Khrushchev, Che Guevara, Richard Nixon, Georges Pompidou, Kakuei Tanaka and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, among others.

[citation needed] After the Qing dynasty established its capital in Beijing, the government reduced the size of Xiyuan to the area centered around the three lakes enclosed by a small wall, portions of which form the basis of Zhongnanhai's current boundary.

During the late Qing dynasty, several gatehouses were built on both sides of Jin'ao Yudong Bridge[Chinese Wikipedia], giving Zhongnanhai and Beihai Park separate wall enclosures within Xiyuan.

[9] After the CCP's Capture of Beijing in 1949, the party's senior leadership began plans to relocate their headquarters to the old capital, but they did not initially agree on the location of their central workplace.

[citation needed] As part of the planning for the first Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Zhou Enlai decided that, with some modifications, Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai would be ideal, but he did not initially recommend it during meetings to become the party headquarters.

Early party and state laters were assigned residences in Zhongnanhai on an ad hoc basis, often using houses built for servants of the Qing court, or by repurposing buildings intended for other purposes.

[12] Chinese maps of Beijing show Zhongnanhai as an insignificant green area with a water body; in contrast, the municipal government, however, is shown significantly with a red star.

Though the building was beginning to show its age at the time, initially Premier Zhou Enlai resisted renovation efforts citing a commitment to fiscal austerity.

Li Peng's efforts were unsuccessful, however, and West Flower Hall subsequently became part of the North Courtyard Core (北院核心) residence assigned to Lin Jiamei.

In Regent Palace's original configuration as built by Prince Chun, the area where the fourth conference room is located was known as Yin'an Hall (银安殿; 銀安殿).

Feeling that the facilities for hosting these diplomats at Ziguang Hall at the time were inadequate, some officials proposed that a guest lounge and tennis court be built nearby.

During the time when Mao lived nearby at Poolside House, the indoor swimming pool was remodeled and enlarged under the supervision of Zhongnanhai's head engineer Tian Genggui.

[45] After Mao's death in 1976, Zhou Enlai's wife Deng Yingchao briefly lived at poolside house during the extensive redevelopment of the Regent Palace area before returning to West Flower Hall.

[1] Located on an island in the Central Sea, the Water Clouds Pavilion contains a stele engraved by the Qianlong Emperor reading "Autumn Wind on the Taiye Lake".

[52][53] The building served as the daily workplace of Dowager Empress Cixi, the then de facto ruler of China, replacing the Hall of Mental Cultivation in the nearby Forbidden City.

[68] There is an encrypted hotline that runs from Qinzheng Hall to the White House in Washington, D.C. for the purpose of conducting high level talks with American leaders.

[72] In the late 1970s, Wang Dongxing, the director of the Central Committee General Office, demolished Qinzheng hall and spent 6.9 million yuan intended for its reconstruction to build his own private residence.

The Four Blessing Halls (四福堂), which date from the time of the Qianlong Emperor, line the eastern side of a narrow lane that once formed a western boundary of Zhongnanhai.

[75] In the early days of the PRC, an informal school called the "Zhongnanhai Amateur University" was run out of this location for the benefit of the Central Committee's secretaries and security staff.

[12] The West Building includes a large kitchen and cafeteria for the General Office staff and a smaller eating area that doubles as a conference room for the use of senior leadership.

At the meeting, the party leaders discussed in significant detail the dire fiscal and economic situation in the country in the aftermath of the failure of the Great Leap Forward and promised to recover the agricultural sector.

The formal addresses of these agencies are as follows: Some of the buildings within the Garden of Abundant Beneficence (丰泽园; 豐澤園) were built by the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty who originally used them to raise silkworms.

[93] The Garden of Abundant Beneficence also contains Chairman Mao Zedong's first personal residence and office, which he used from 1949 to 1966, a building called the Library of Chrysanthemum Fragrance (菊香书屋).

Immediately to the east of the library are a series of buildings known as the Western Eight Houses (Chinese: 西八所), which served as a dormitory for Mao's personal aides and secretaries.

[96] Located in the northeastern corner of the Southern Sea, the Shuqingyuan Pavilion (淑清院) was built for the Qianlong Emperor as part of a small garden, similar in style to the Beihai Park.

[100][43] During the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests, Premier Li Peng moved into Zhongnanhai and lived in Building 202 due to the perception that he was vulnerable to attack at his residence at Wanshou Road.