Beijing: The Forbidden City
Also known as the Imperial Palace Museum or Gugong, the Forbidden City was the place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties carried out their administration and lived.
Construction of the Forbidden City started in the 4th year of the reign of the third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and was completed 14 years later (1420).
It involved approximately 1,000,000 workers, including 100,000 artisans.
Altogether 24 emperors lived here over a span of 491 years, ending with the last emperor in 1925.
The Forbidden City is the largest best-preserved, mass group of palaces in China.
The palaces are fully walled on four sides by 10-meter-high walls which extend 760 meters from east to west and 960 meters from north to south.
On the wall are four gates, each with a tower above them, and on the four corners of the walls stand four watch towers, each with three roofs and 72 roofridges.
Outside the walls a 52-meter-wide, 3,800-meter-long moat surrounds the city.
The total area is 72 hectares, and there are 9,999 1/2 rooms in the compound.
This number, just 1/2 less than ten thousand, is the figure that was exclusively used to wish the emperor longevity.
Almost all the buildings are symmetrically arranged, with the main halls on the meridian line and the less important halls and houses on the east and west sides.
On the day we visited the Forbidden City, the outside temperature was about zero degrees farenheit, which is why we didn't take more pictures!
Richard and Linda outside the Forbidden City.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony.
One of the many halls and palaces containing the emperor's imperial throne.
On the grounds of the Forbidden City.
The imperial throne inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity.