The Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, lies in the city center of Beijing, and was once the Chinese imperial palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 - 1911).
It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 and is the largest, best-preserved ancient timber-built palace complex in the world.
Constructed between 1406 and 1420 during the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors and their families and acted as the ceremonial and political center of ancient Chinese government throughout 500 years.
After the Last Emperor of China left the palace, it later became a museum open to the public in 1925. Since then, the Forbidden City is no longer ‘forbidden’, and now ordinary people are able to take a virtual trip in time to see the secrets and luxury of imperial life.
Rectangular in shape, the Forbidden City is enormous, covering an area of 72 hectares ( 180 Acres), and boasting more than 9,000 bays of rooms. It is divided into two parts – the Outer Court for national affairs in the south and the Inner Court as living quarters in the north.
It is not only an immense architectural masterpiece, but also a treasury housing a unique collection of 1.8 million pieces of art, including ancient calligraphy and painting, imperial artifacts, ancient books and archives.
It was so named because access to the area was barred to most of the subjects of the realm. Government functionaries and even the imperial family were permitted only limited access; the emperor alone could enter any section at will.
The Forbidden City falls into three parts: the defenses (moat and wall), the Outer Court and the Inner Court.
There are four gates in each direction of the Forbidden City: the Meridian Gate on the south, the Gate of Divine Might on the north, East Glorious Gate on the east and West Glorious Gate on the west.
The relative importance of a building can be judged not only from its height or width but also by the style of its roof and the number of figurines perched on the roof’s ridges.
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