The second phase of the "Baoding and the Forbidden City: Qing Imperial Craft Heritage Series" opened on August 1, 2026 at the Ancient Lotus Pond in Baoding, Hebei Province. Titled "Jinghua Yuxiu" (Imperial Embroidery of the Capital), the weaving-and-embroidery art exhibition runs through August 31 at the Hanyu Xuan hall inside Lianchi Academy. The exhibition itself is free of charge, though visitors must purchase the garden's entry ticket. Opening hours are 8:30 to 18:30 daily, with last admission at 17:30; holiday schedules are announced through the Ancient Lotus Pond's official WeChat account.
Baoding once stood as the strategic pivot of the capital region — a city said to "command the three passes to the north and reach nine provinces to the south" — and its ties to the Forbidden City run deep. It supplied the imperial court with master craftsmen and governance talent while retaining a royal architectural legacy built to the same specifications as Beijing's palace complex, nurturing intangible-heritage crafts that traveled from court to countryside. The series exhibition is built around the concept of "the capital-region bond," decoding the cultural entanglement between Baoding and the Forbidden City over centuries. Its first phase, "Golden Wire and Cloisonné Glory: Cloisonné Art Exhibition," ran in the same hall from July 1 to July 31 and drew steady summer audiences; the current Jingxiu show is phase two of a planned multi-part program that will continue to bring imperial craft traditions to the garden.
Jingxiu, also called palace embroidery (gongxiu), ranks among the "Eight Imperial Arts of Beijing" (Yanjing Bajue). The craft mirrors the establishment, heyday and codification of Qing court art: in the curtains, canopies and robes of the palace, each stitch carried dynastic authority, turning fabric into a record of ritual order. In 2014, Jingxiu was inscribed on the national intangible cultural heritage representative list. Baoding's Dingxing, Tangxian and Yixian counties preserve a complete transmission lineage, and the craft's teaching model has shifted from secret court transmission and master-to-apprentice oral instruction to a mix of workshop practice, academy education and public dissemination — setting quality benchmarks for modern crafts and serving as an aesthetic template for contemporary design.
The venue itself adds historical depth. Lianchi Academy sits within the Ancient Lotus Pond, a classical garden that first took shape in the Yuan dynasty and grew into one of the most celebrated academy gardens of northern China, its pools and pavilions once frequented by Qing-era scholars preparing for the imperial examinations. Hanyu Xuan's grey brick and black-tiled roofs frame the exhibition, where visitors can examine Jingxiu's signature quality — "full yet ordered, ornate yet restrained" — up close. As a major display window for the national ICH craft, the show offers summer visitors to the Ancient Lotus Pond a chance to see imperial weaving and embroidery without leaving Hebei. Baoding's culture and tourism authorities remind travelers that the flood season has arrived and that rainfall is increasing, urging caution on outdoor trips.
