Forbidden City

If you have seen the film “The Last Emperor” then you will already have an impression of what China’s Forbidden City looks like. A functioning mini city it is a series of squares, courtyards, raised temples and buildings spreading over 720,000 metres in a vast rectangle behind 7.9 metre high walls and containing almost a thousand buildings, the city is the world‘s largest palace complex. Yellow, the colour of the imperial family is the dominant colour, from the roofs to decorations to the stone tiled floors in some places.

As well as the walls which have bases eight and a half metres thick tapering to upwards, the city is also surrounded by a moat, 52 metres wide by six metres deep. On three sides the Forbidden City is then surrounded by beautiful formal gardens and further walls. The main gate, called the Meridian Gate, an impressive, ornate creation with extended wings fronting on to a large square, is on the southern wall.

Built in the beginning of the 15th Century, when the Chinese capital was moved to Beijing, five imperial families and 24 Emperors lived and ruled here. The front section of the city by the southern entrance was used for pomp and ceremony while the back section was used for the day to day business of the imperial family and the running of the country. The most familiar structure in the complex is probably the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is a rectangular temple-esque building rising 30 metres above the huge courtyard which fronts it (if you have seen ‘The Last Emperor’ this was used to impressive effect when filled with extras all revering the Emperor.). The largest surviving wooden structure in China, the hall has rows of pillars supporting a huge carving of a coiled dragon.

After the last Emperor abdicated in 1912 the outer portions of the city were opened up for public use for the first time, prior to that the ‘Forbidden’ part of the title meant what it said - no one was allowed to enter or leave without the Emperor’s permission.

Since 1924 the Palace Museum has been charged with protecting and restoring the city and it’s artefacts, some of which are back on display in museum buildings within the complex after having been evacuated in WW2. Making up part of the collection are over 30,000 pieces of jade, mostly from the imperial collection and featuring several famous pieces.

Most Chinese now refer to the Forbidden City as Gugong, meaning ‘former palace’.

With large restoration projects underway the Palace Museum made a few questionable decisions over what uses were appropriate for buildings within the Forbidden City, and though the main offender, Starbucks, Forbidden City was removed in July 2007 there are still a couple of questionable souvenir shops.