The Itinerary - Day 3 - The Forbidden City - Palace Museum

23 September 2013, Monday Afternoon

In our previous post, we noted that Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the centre of Beijing that was named after the Tiananmen Gate (Chinese for "Gate of Heavenly Peace") The Gate is located to the North of the Square separating the square from the Forbidden City.

Lying at the city center and called "Gu Gong" in Chinese, the Forbidden City was the Imperial Palace for 24 emperors over 500 years during the Ming (1368–1644, 276 years) and Qing (1644-1912, 268 years) dynasties.  Built betwen 1406 and 1420 during the first 14 years of the reign of Emperor Chengzu  in the Ming Dynasty, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 7.8 million square feet. 

The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palace architecture and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere.  The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. 

Ancient Chinese astronomers believed that the Purple Star (Polaris) was in the center of the heavens and that the "Heavenly Emperor" lived in the Purple Palace on the star Polaris.  Hence, the palace for the emperor here on earth was called the "Purple City".  Since it was forbidden to enter without the special permission of the Emperor, it was also called "The Purple Forbidden City", or simply "The Forbidden City".

Now known as the Palace Museum, it is located to the north of Tiananmen Square.  Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares.  Surrounded by a 52-meter-wide moat and a 10-meter-high wall, the Forbidden City has more than 8,700 rooms.  The surrounding wall has a gate on each side. Opposite the Tiananmen Gate and to the north is the Gate of Divine Might (Shenwumen), which faces Jingshan Park.  The north-south distance between the Tiananem Gate and Shenwumen Gate is 960 meters.  The distance between the east gate and the west gate is 750 meters.  There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall.  Looking inward, these towers provide a unique view of the palace.  Looking outward, they provide a good view of the old city.

Panoramic View Of The Forbidden Palace

Since 1925, the Palace Museum has been responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and administration of the Forbidden City.  This includes curatorial responsibility for the extensive collection of artwork and artifacts from the Ming and Qing dynasties.  (Part of the Museum's former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei in Taiwan.  Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Revolution of 1949).

After dinner we visit the Beijing Opera