China has begun to restore the garden home in the northern municipality of Tianjin where China's last emperor Aisin Giorro Pu Yi lived following his abdication of power.

Forty families living in Jingyuan Garden have been moved out to make way for the restoration project, according to the city's cultural bureau.

Covering 3,360 square meters, Jingyuan Garden, or Garden of Tranquility, consists of three courtyards including a residential area, a work area and a recreational area. It was designated a protected relics site in 1982.

Approximately 90 percent of the garden's buildings need repair and former relics, like furniture and ornaments, will be collected and added to the last emperor's work office and living room.

The restoration project will cost 50 million yuan (US$6.25 million) and the municipal government plans to turn the garden home into a museum of the last emperor's life when the renovation work is completed in 2007, according to the bureau.

Pu Yi lived in Jingyuan Garden, built in 1921, on Anshan Road in Heping District between 1929 and 1931, after being evicted from Beijing's Forbidden City in 1924. He left the garden on Nov. 10, 1931 for the country's northeast, becoming a figurehead emperor in a regime manipulated by Japan.

In 1908, when he was almost three years old, Pu Yi ascended the imperial throne as the 10th ruler of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the last dynasty of China's feudal system. Less than three years later, the 1911 Revolution against the Qing Dynasty broke out and Pu Yi was forced to abdicate.

After being expelled from Beijing's imperial palace in November 1924, Pu Yi and his family members and eunuchs fled to Tianjin. Pu Yi died of illness in Beijing in 1967.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)