The Forbidden City - Must go in Beijing

Address: 4 Jing Shan Qian Jie, Dongcheng, Beijing, China
Phone: +86 10 8500 7428

The Forbidden City is not onlythe essence and culmination of traditional Chinese architectural accomplishment but also the largest ancient palatial structure in the world. This former imperial palace, which is called Gu Gong in Chinese, is located at the Beijing’s heart. It was the imperial palace for twenty-four emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. In other words, it witnessed the enthronement of fourteen Ming and ten Qing emperors over the following 505 years until the Republic overthrew the last Qing emperor.The Imperial Palaces of Beijing was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987.

The construction of the grand palace was built throughout 14 years, started in the fourth year of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty (1406), and ended in 1420. It is such a divine place was certainly forbidden to ordinary peopleto enter without special permission of the emperor. That is the reason why it is named “The Purple Forbidden City” or “The Forbidden City”.

The Forbidden City - Must go in Beijing

Enclosed by a 10-meter-high defensive wall with a circumference of 3, 430 meters, the Forbidden City is China’s largest and best-preserved collection of ancient buildings in the world. Extending 753 meters from east to west, and 961 meters from north to south, the Forbidden City covers an area of about 72 hectares with a total floor space of approximately 150,000 square meters. There are 90 palaces and courtyards, 980 buildings and 8,704 rooms in it.

City walls were 10 meters in height, and a 52 meter - wide moat surround the Forbidden City. The wall extraordinarily is very strong because of their incredible materials. They are the bricks were made from white lime and glutinous rice while the cement is made from glutinous rice and egg whites.

The Forbidden City is divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner palaces. The Outer palace, includes the Hall of Central Harmony, the Hall of Supreme Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony comprise, where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation whereas the Inner, comprisesthe Hall of Union, the Hall of Heavenly Purity and the Hall ofEarthly Tranquility, where he lived with his royal family.The Forbidden City can be called a masterpiece in Chinese, even world, architectural history because its buildings fully show the artistic features and style of ancient Chinese palace architecture.

This palace is known as called the Palace Museum orthe largest museum of cultural relics in China. It collected and displayed some one million precious historical relics from the Shang Dynasty (16th century -771 BC) through to the Qing Dynasty.