The Palace’s “Living Mascot”

In many photos of the Palace, in addition to the magnificent palaces imbued with Chinese Imperial history, we can also see a lot of cats.

Imperial Palace – Royal cat

According to statistics, there are nearly 200 cats living in the Royal Palace and they are collectively known with the very noble name, which is “Ku cat” (Royal cat).

There are many different explanations for the appearance of these cats. But a strange thing is that tourists visiting the Royal Palace hardly see the Royal cat anywhere.

In fact, these cats have a very special background. Many people also believe that they are the original “aboriginal” of the Forbidden City. Why do you say that?

According to some historical records, during the reign of Chu Nguyen Chuong Minh Thai To, he raised several cats in the Imperial Palace. Later, after moving the capital to Beijing, these cats “settled” in the Forbidden City even earlier than the Royal Family. Since then, for more than 600 years, their lives have continued normally, seemingly unaffected by external factors.

In 2018, the Palace conducted a census. Accordingly, there are about 181 cats in the Palace. Each child is collected information and periodically health check.

Some cats were recorded and broadcast on the program “It’s on the news, Cung Cung!” (rough translation) – a cultural propaganda product of Beijing Television in collaboration with the Palace Museum.

Furthermore, these “Breeded Cats” have been spayed and given names. In it, there is a cat with a very “cool” name, Ao Bai – the name of a powerful Manchu general and one of the four great regents under the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in the calendar. Chinese history.

So why does the Palace have so many cats, but tourists rarely see them?

Because these cats like quiet places, the Palace is full of tourists. As far as we know, some areas in the Palace are not open to the public, so these cats often live in secluded places with few people.

Cats in the Palace are divided into 3 types

The first type is quiet cats, often living in “no-go” areas, almost no people.

The second type is Jing Tieu Tieu and the herd. Canh Tieu Tieu is the name of the famous yellow-haired cat recorded in the program “It’s on the news, Cung Cung!”. These cats are not afraid of people. They usually hang around in the Yuhua Garden, outside the Jingyun Gate and the Temple of Literature.

The last category is the most “dandy” cats of the Royal Palace. The staff working in the Palace said that these cats only appear during mealtimes and then disappear.

But no matter what type of cat, the staff still take great care of them. You can also see the silhouettes of the tails wagging gracefully when walking in the Palace. If anyone likes cats, of course they can take pictures, but “just look at it from a distance, don’t play with it”.

Currently, these cats have become an extremely important symbol of the Palace. Therefore, the Palace is also known by tourists as “Cat Sanctuary” like Japan’s famous Cat Island.

Source: Sohu