The Great Wall of China, Forbidden City,Terra-Cotta Warriors,Yangtze River, Bird's Nest, Water Cube....

  Brief Introduction

Forbidden City, which is also named as the Palace Museum of China, is situated in the central part of Beijing. It covers 74 hectares and just opposites the Tian'anmen Gate in the south; to the north is the Gate of Devine Prowess (Shenwumen), which faces Jingshan Park. It is a beautiful scenic spot with exuberant wood and grass. By far, Forbidden City is the largest; most completed ancient wood palace buildings. The palace is departed into two parts, the Outer Court and the Inner Court. The Outer Court is just for the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation. And the Inner Court is for his private life with his royal families.

The Forbidden City, in details, extends 753 meters from east to west, and 961 meters from north to south. It is shaped in rectangular and takes up a total area of 720,000 square meters. It composed of some dozen admixtures of different sizes and 9,900 bays of rooms, with an entire floor area of 150,000 square meters. Most of the buildings were built with wood, roofed with yellow glazed tiles and built on blue-and-white stone foundations, looking solemn and excellent. City walls were 10 meters high, and a 52 meter-wide moat encircled the Forbidden City. Three-floor towers are placed at each corner of the wall.

Forbidden City possesses a history of more than 500 years, and has been ruled by 24 emperors of Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. It houses huge amounts of rare treasures and curiosities. UNESCO listed the Palace Museum as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987; now it is one of the most popular tourist attractions home and abroad.

As we all known that the Forbidden City is also called as Purple Forbidden City. In the feudal world at that time, the emperor had supreme power, which means that the Forbidden City is a palace only for up-classes. That is to say, it is a real forbidden place for common people. And purple is the symbolic color of the North Star, which was believed as the center of the cosmos. That is why we called it Forbidden City.  

After having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, the Forbidden City holds numerous rare treasures and curiosities. Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987. Nowadays, the Forbidden City is open to tourists and has turned out to be one of the most popular tourist attractions from home and abroad. Both its splendid painted decoration on these royal architectural wonders and the grand and deluxe halls, with their surprisingly magnificent treasures will appear great attraction to satisfy the curiosity foreigners and ourselves. 

The Meridian Gate, Wumen in Chinese, is the main entrance of Forbidden City on the south. The emperor still believed that they are the sons of heaven and should live in the central part of universe. They thought the meridian line was just gone through the city, so they called it Wumen.

The gate is 35.6 meters high and surmounted by five pavilions. Because each pavilion resembles a phoenix, this gate also gets the nickname as WuFengLou in Chinese, which means 'Five Phoenix Tower'. The central pavilion is rectangular in shape, while the other four with every two on each side, are square. There are strict rules to enter the openings, the central gate is only for emperor himself, and it represents sovereign power. The empress is only permitted to go through once on her wedding day. As a special honor, the first three finalists of the national examination would allow to march through following their interview with the emperor. The east opening for the ministers while the west for the royal family. And the rest ones were for the low-ranking officials. There is no way for ordinaries to enter.

The special drums and bells were all for emperors, as a signal to announce their meeting with his ministers in Taihedian (Hall of Supreme Harmony). The drums were used to announce an emperor's departure to Titan (the Temple of Heaven) and bells to announce his departure to Taimiao (the Ancestral Temple).

Many special events would take place at the Meridian Gate. Every 1st day of the lunar year, the emperor would announce the coming year. Also here they celebrated victories and accepted prisoners of war from the dispatched generals. It is the place for emperors to publish those who offended them as well.

  Feature

After entering the Meridian Gate, there built five Inner Golden Bridge with Inner Golden Water runs below. Their build-up, in a large degree, was the result of fire- preventing as well as observing the principle of Feng Shui and decorative feature. The five stands as five arrows reporting symbolically to Heaven, because the emperor considered himself the Sons of Heaven. They all decorated with marble balustrades carved with motifs of dragon and phoenix.

  Function

The five Inner Golden Bridges also have strict rules, the central one was only for emperors and the near inner two for royal families with the two left for ministers. Partly speaking, the five Inner Golden Bridges were supposed to represent the five Confucian virtues of caritas, responsibility, brightness, trustiness and (ceremonial) suitability.

After come across the Inner Golden Bridge, we would enter a large part of courtyard. It is a place without trees or anything else, because the emperors always considered themselves the Sons of Heaven, they couldn't bear anything appear higher. Right in front of the courtyard is the center of the north part of Forbidden City, where the Gate of Supreme Harmony lies. It is the main gate of the Outer Court.
Two bronze lions guarded TaiHeMen, in order to show the imperial sanctity. The west one is male, with its front right paw resting on a ball, symbolizing imperial power extended worldwide. The lioness on the east side has its front left paw on a lion cub, which indicate a prosperously growing family and the never-ending secession of the imperial pedigree.
One of the biggest events held here is the emperors' wedding ceremony. It is also be known as an annunciation of an Act of Grace by Shunzhi. During the Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, this was where the emperor held his court to handle the state affairs. The emperor would sit in the gateway, accept documents from his ministers and make the decisions.  

TaiHeDian was built up on a three -tier marble terrace in 1406 and has undergone many times repairs later. The so-called Golden Carriage Palace to be recognized as the heart of Forbidden City is the palace where the emperors handled the national affairs. Civil and military officials would all kneel before him proclaiming: "Long Live Your Majesty". It is a palace where numerous ceremonious and important occasions take place. Celebrations as emperors' birthdays, weddings etc. and most occasions as the Winter Solstice, the Chinese New Year and the dispatch of generals into fields of war.

TaiHeDian is the highest building in Forbidden City. The 35.05-metre-high (115-foot-high) hall was the tallest building in Beijing as well during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The traditional way calculating the interior space of a building was to count the number of squares. Space enclosed by four pillars was treated as one room, so this hall can be said to have 5 "rooms", 11 rooms wide and five rooms deep.

There are totally 72 pillars standing in six rows to support the roof. Each of the pillars supporting the hall was made from a single piece of wood, which is about 18 meters high. Alongside the flights of steps which ascend the three tiers of the terrace, there are eighteen bronze Dings, a kind of ancient vessel, representing the eighteen national provinces of those times. On the luxuriously balustraded terrace, stand a bronze crane and a bronze tortoise, symbols of everlasting rule and longevity. The marble Rigui, an ancient sun dial on the eastern side and the Jialiang, an ancient measuring vessel on the western side demonstrate that the emperor was both just and fair. In front of the hall, there are a couple of gilded bronze vats, which were used to hold water in case of fire. Even in winter, to prevent the happening of fire, fire would be lighted below each vessel to keep the water from freezing.  

The Hall of Complete Harmony, ZhongHeDian in Chinese, is the place where the emperors rested before they went to the major ceremonies or receiving the officials. The first impression left by the Hall of Complete Harmony is the single pyramid roof, which contains a throne with incense burners and braziers in front of it. ZhongHeDian is square in shape rather than rectangular as the other two in the Outer Court and is the smallest of the three.  

It acted as a personal reservation or office-cum-study space for emperors on their way to join ceremonies in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Here is just the place they consulted with their religious ministers. In advance of the time when going to the Temple of the Ancestral Farmers, they would inspect the seeds and farming tools to be used during the ceremony. Every year before they went to sacrificial rites at the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of the Earth or elsewhere, they would read elegiac addresses. During the Qing dynasty the imperial genealogy was revised every ten years. A special ceremony was held in this hall so that the revision could be presented to His Majesty for approval.

The Hall of Complete Harmony is heavily painted from the inside that makes the whole hall full of solemnity and mystery. As we go inside, the sandalwood throne, which is situated in the center, is standing on a two-meter high platform and surrounded by six gold-lacquered pillars painted with dragons.

Take an inside look at the Hall of complete Harmony (Zhonghedian), a pair of golden unicorns that standing on either side of the centrally positioned throne can be seen. In Chinese, it called as “luduan”, they were believed to be multilingual and capable of traveling 9,000 kilometers in just one day. What with their extraordinary abilities, effigies of these mythical beasts, which served also as sandalwood burners, were put beside the throne as a symbol of the emperors' great wisdom and intelligence. And next to the throne, there are a couple of sedan chairs, which were used to shuttle emperors around the whole Forbidden City.  

The structure of BaoHeDian is somewhat a kind of typical Qing style that without supporting pillars in its front part. It was built in 1420, rebuilt in 1625 and renovated in 1765.It stands at the northern end of the three-tier marble terrace of the Outer Court, a bit smaller than the Hall of Supreme Harmony but larger than the Hall of Complete Harmony. This hall was the mot decorative one in Forbidden City
Function with the original throne sits in the middle, surrounded by some fine bronzes.

The Hall of Preserving Harmony, during Ming Dynasty, it is the palace where Emperors would change into their ritual garments prior to the ceremonial installation of an empress or crown prince. And later in Qing Dynasty, imperial banquets of different purpose often held here, such as a princess's marriage and celebration on New Year's Eve in honor margraves, Mongol princes and civil and military officials. An important decision was made in 1789 by emperor Qianlong is that the final process of the Palace Examination should be transferred from the Hall of Supreme Harmony to the Hall of Preserving Harmony. This was all along be regarded as the highest level of the nation-wide imperial examination system and the emperor would honor the top ten successful candidates by reading the papers they had presented. The three scholars who passed the exam with the best score would get honorable titles.

•Next :the 'Inner Court'-The Forbidden City