A view of the Prince Kung's Palace Photo: VCG

Prince Kung's Palace Museum, also known as Prince Gong's Mansion, or Gong Wang Fu in Chinese, is one of the largest and best-preserved royal mansions from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). One of its permanent exhibitions - an anti-corruption exhibition - has hosted more than 600,000 visitors since March 2023. 

The museum is a fine example of ancient Chinese architecture. Consisting of a large courtyard-style mansions and gardens, the museum is a typical example of the ancient buildings in Beijing. Originally constructed for He Shen, an official highly favored by Emperor Qianlong (1711-99), it was later renamed after Prince Gong of the late Qing Dynasty. 

A grand secretary of the Qing Dynasty, He is considered to be most corrupt high official in Chinese history. The anti-corruption exhibition consists of three sections: "Chinese Traditional Integrity Culture," "Negative Example of Honesty and Integrity - He Shen" and "Strengthening Ideals and Beliefs, Maintaining Integrity and Staying to True Original Aspirations." 

Among the visitors, 20,000 were from government departments, state-owned enterprises and as-sociations that require officials maintain integrity. 

In addition to the museum, many other tourism spots have branched out to act as integrity education bases. Some are former residences of celebrities, such as Ji Xiaolan's Former Residence in Beijing, the Ancestral Hall of 500 Saints in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, and the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao in Kaifeng, an ancient city in Central ­China's Henan Province. 

Posts on Xiaohongshu, a popular Chinese social media platform, show that visitors have found one anti-corruption education base, a prison, particularly impressive. One poster on the platform, Yang Mei, a criminal lawyer in South China's Hainan Province, said that the corruption cases showcased since 2019 at the prison had made a deep impression on her.

"The records of astonishing deals and the confession letters disclose the harmfulness of corruption. My team and I have accepted this alerting education into our souls," Yang wrote.   

Another Xiaohongshu user based in Shanghai posted that after visiting the Prince Kung's Palace Museum she realized just how much power can lure people to do wrong things.