ABSTRACT
Initiated by the Nanjing Municipal Government (NMG), reconstruction of the Great BaoEn Pagoda (GBEP) started in 2001. According to official records, the Great BaoEn Temple was built during 1413–28 under the command of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1544) to commemorate his parents. The temple had an 80-metre-high pagoda covered with coloured glaze (Figure 7.1). The pagoda was regarded as a symbol of the Nanjing city from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, and greatly impressed missionaries, diplomats and soldiers who came to Nanjing from Europe after the sixteenth century. In 1854, the pagoda and the temple were destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion. Over time, the site was occupied by housing, leaving only some relic sites and place names that could remind people of the magnificent royal architecture. The GBEP reconstruction project has been ongoing for more than 10 years, and support from the government and investments have kept increasing while discourses about the pagoda were constructed which, in return, affected the project.
