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Forbidden City / Imperial Palace Museum
The Forbidden City or Forbidden Palace (literally "Purple Forbidden City"), located at the exact center of the ancient City of Beijing, was the imperial palace during the mid-Ming and the Qing dynasties. Known now as the Palace Museum (pinyin: Gùgong Bówùyùan), its extensive grounds cover 720,000 square meters, 800 buildings and 9,999 rooms. (It should not be confused with the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.) As such, it is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the World, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987. The Imperial Palace grounds are located directly to the north of Tiananmen Square and are accessible from the square via Tiananmen Gate. It is surrounded by a large area called the Imperial City. Although no longer occupied by royalty, the Forbidden City remains a symbol of Chinese sovereignty and the image of its entrance gate appears on the seal of the People's Republic of China. The Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Recently, the site has been under much renovation which has limited visitors to the main courtyards and a few gardens. HistoryThe site where the Forbidden City stands today was part of the imperial city during the Yuan dynasty. When the Ming dynasty succeeded it, the first Hongwu Emperor moved the capital to Nanjing and ordered that the Mongol palaces be razed in 1369. His son, Zhu Li, was created Prince of Yan with seat in Beijing. A princely palace was built on the site. In 1402, Zhu Li usurped the throne and became the Yongle Emperor. He moved the capital back to Beijing, and began planning a new imperial palace which would equal that of his father's in Nanjing. The construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406 and took 14 years and an estimated 200,000 men. The principal axis of the new palace sits to the east of the Yuan dynasty palace, a design intended to place the Yuan palace in the western or "kill" position. Soil excavated during construction of the moat was piled up to the north of the palace to create an artificial hill, the Jingshan hill. From its completion in 1420 to 1644, when a peasant revolt led by Li Zicheng invaded it, the Forbidden City served as the seat of the Ming Dynasty. The following Qing Dynasty also occupied the Forbidden City. In 1860, during the Second Anglo-Chinese Opium War, British forces managed to penetrate to the heart of the Forbidden City and occupied it until the end of the war, being the only foreign power to do so. After being the home of 24 emperors—fourteen of the Ming Dynasty and ten of the Qing Dynasty—the Forbidden City ceased being the political center of China in 1912 with the abdication of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China. He was, however, allowed and in fact required to live within the walls of the Forbidden City, until a coup launched by a local general in 1924. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, the Forbidden City houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. In 1947, after they had been moved from one location to another inside mainland China for many years (most recently to hide from the Japanese in the war), Chiang Kai-shek ordered many of the artifacts within the Forbidden City to be moved to Taiwan where they formed the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. This action has been extremely controversial, with some regarding it as looting while others regarding it as safekeeping, especially with the events of the Cultural Revolution on the mainland. Forbidden City ResourcesForbidden City The Forbidden City: The Palace Museum Forbidden City also known as the Imperial Palace Museum The Forbidden City China Window: Forbidden City About.com: Forbidden City Splendors of China’s Forbidden City |
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