Lying
at the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City, called gugong, in Chinese,
used to be the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is called
the Palace Museum now. It lies 1 kilometer north of the Tian'anmen Square,
with its south gate, the Gate of Devine Might (Shenwumen), facing the
Jingshan Park. 960 meters long and 750 meters wide, the world largest
palace complex covers a floor space of 720,000 square meters, having 9,999
buildings. The rectangular city is encircled in a 52-meter-long, 6-meter-deep
moat and a 10-meter-high, 3,400-meter-long city wall which has one gate
on each side. There are four unique and delicate structured corner towers
overlooking the city inside and outside on the four corners. Generally,
it was divided into two parts, the northern half, or the Outer Court where
emperors executed their supreme power over the nation and the southern
half, or the Inner Court where they lived with their royal family. Until
1924 when the last emperor in China was driven out of the Inner Court,
14 emperors of the Ming dynasty and 10 emperors of the Qing dynasty had
reigned here. About 500 years being the imperial palace, it houses numerous
rare treasures and curiosities. It is now listed by the UN as World Cultural
Heritage in 1987 and is the hottest tourist magnets.
Construction of the palace complex started in 1407, the 5th year of the Yongle reign of the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, and was completed 14 years later in 1420. It was said that a million workers including 100,000 artisans were driven into the long-term hard labor. Stones needed were quarried from Fangshan, suburb of Beijing. It was said a well was dug along the road every 50 meters in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice into the city. Huge amount of timbers and other materials were all freighted from faraway provinces. Ancient Chinese people fully displayed their wisdom in building the Forbidden City. Take the grand red city wall for example, the ladder shaped wall has an 8.6 meters wide bottom and a 6.66 meters wide top. The shape of the city wall totally frustrate attempt to climb onto the wall. The bricks of the wall are said made from white lime and glutinous rice while the cement is made from glutinous rice and egg whites, and these incredible materials make the wall extraordinarily strong.
Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in the Forbidden City. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations in the palace are painted yellow; even the bricks on the ground are made yellow in special process. However, there is one exception. Wenyuange, the royal library, has a black roof. The reason is that it was believed black represented water then and could extinguish fire.
Nowadays, the Forbidden City, or the Palace Museum is open to tourists home and abroad. Splendid paintings on the royal architectures, grand and deluxe halls, and surprisingly magnificent treasures will certainly satisfy "modern civilians".
You may start your tour by following our virtual guide.