Hotels in Beijing
"The Forbidden City" is a translation into English of the Chinese name Zijin Cheng, which literally means "Purple Forbidden City". The Forbidden City is the world's largest surviving palace complex with nearly 9,000 rooms, and covers 72 ha. The palace is rectangular in shape and is surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall. It is located in the middle of Beijing, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.
Build from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 rooms. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. Construction lasted 15 years, and required more than a million workers.
The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The southern section, or the Outer Court, was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation. The northern section, or the Inner Court, was where he lived with his royal family. Until 1925, when the last emperor was driven from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, it houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities.
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 by a special process.
