The Forbidden City contains the
imperial palaces of the
Ming and Qing dynasties. Twenty-four emperors ruled from there.
The last dynasty collapsed during the 1911 Revolution, but the
last emperor Puyi lived in the Inner Palace until 1924. Then,
the city was opened to the public as the Palace Museum.
The city know is famous as the biggest museum in the world which
covers an area of 72 hectares with rectangular in shape. It
is said that there are 9999.5 rooms in the whole complex. The
city is surrounded by 10-meter-high wall, and further encircled
by a metre wide, nearly 4000 meter long moat. In the old time,
the city was forbidden for the common people. So, it was called
Forbidden City.
The large scale construction of the city extended from 1406
to 1420. Million of works and artisans were called into requisition.
Huge logs needed for the city were brought from southwest provinces.
The layout of the city
was arranged as imperial manner: with an outer court for the
emperor to handle state affairs and an inner court as living
quarters. The outer court was consisted by a group of magnificent
halls, which symbolized sovereign power. The emperor lived in
the inner court with his large family. It is said that the emperor
had as many as 3,000 concubines, unfortunately, many of them
had no second chance to see the emperor in their whole lives.
