The Forbidden City

       The Forbidden City is located at the exact centre of Beijing, which had been set as the capital of China in 1400s by the third Ming Emperor Yongle. The Forbidden City which is called  “Zijin Cheng” in Chinese, started in 1406 and completed in 1420. Forbidden City is a immense  construction in the past and even now. It is the best-preserved imperial palace in China, and the largest ancient palatial structure in the world, and the essence and elimination of traditional Chinese architectural accomplishment. Over 24 Emperors were living in this huge group of palaces from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. So it has over 500 years history of homing the Emperors. There are about 9000 rooms in over 800 buildings in the Forbidden City. Also, it is a rectangle city, with a 52 meter-wide river to protect the whole palace, so the group of palaces is also called as the “city in the city”.

      There are several gates to get into the Forbidden City, in the front of the castle is the Meridian Gate, in the east side is the Donghua Gate, which is also called as the “Gate of the ghost”.While people died, their bodies will be get out of the palace through this door. In the west side is the Xihua Gate. For the exit, they used the Gate of Divine Might, which is in the north side of the castle.

      For the outer court, there are 3 main buildings. The Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihedian), the Hall of Central Harmony (Zhonghedian) and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian). The uses of these 3 halls are to form and attend the grand ceremonies and conducted state affairs. Taihedian is the largest and the most significant palace in the entire castle, the Dragon Chair which is the symbol of emperor sets in this hall. The Qianqingmen is also in the outer court, and it is the gate to go to the inner court.

      The main buildings that formed up the inner court are the 6 western palaces and the 6 eastern palaces. Emperors used them to do the everyday affairs and their wives used them to lived in. And in the inner court, the 3 main palaces are the Palace of Heavenly Peace, which named “Qianqinggong” in Chinese; the Palace of Union and Peace, which was called as “Jiaotaidian”; and the Palace of Terrestrial Tranquility, which is “Kunninggong”. Qianqinggong is the first palace in the inner court of the castle, which is used to be the bedroom of the emperor; Jiaotaidian is the place where keep the imperial seals; and the Kunninggong is the wedding room for the emperors. By the way, one palace called the Mental Cultivation Hall (Yangxindian) is the second significant palaces in the Forbidden City. Since Yongzheng, the third emperor of the Qing Dynasty, all the Qing emperors resided in this palace.

     There are more than 10 types of roofs     In the group of the palaces. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty used the glazed tiles to form the roofs when they built the Forbidden City. The colors of the roofs need to follow a lots of rules. The main is yellow, green is for the children of the emperors. Basically, others are blue, purple, black and navy blue. The glazed tiles were mainly decorated for the garden and the wall of the tile.