In total, 24 emperors occupied the Forbidden City. It is called that because it could only be accessed by the emperor. In addition to him, his immediate family, their wives, and thousands of eunuchs (castrated servants) and officials had access.
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The complex is made up of about 980 buildings, mostly in yellow and red colors. They are surrounded by a wall 10 meters high and a moat 52 meters wide.
The city is configured on a north-south axis that aligns with the North Star. It emphasizes the emperor's position as the son of heaven.
The southern part, which is also called the outer court, ends at the Hall of Supreme Harmony (the largest building). It used to be the place where official business was conducted. The northern part, which is also known as the inner court.
In this region were the residences of the emperor and his family. In addition there was the harem where his concubines were kept.
It was difficult for an ordinary person to enter the Forbidden City. The most likely case would be that of a person transformed into a eunuch. Namely, having your genitals cut off.
The Forbidden City is a major tourist destination attracting millions of visitors each year. In a single day, the Forbidden City received 175,000 visitors. This has made it the most visited World Heritage destination in the world.
The palace complex was built by Zhu Di (the Yongle Emperor) who lived in 1360-1424 AD. He was crowned emperor in 1402 after overthrowing his nephew from the throne.
After his accession, he decided to move the imperial capital of Nanjing to his power base. The place was called Beiping, but it was renamed to beijing, “the northern capital”.
Moving the capital and building a new palace complex was an immense operation. That meant expanding China's canal system and mobilizing around 1 million workers. They cut trees, stones, rocks, made bricks and transported supplies, among the many other necessary activities.
A large number of huge stones were quarried and transported for the construction of the city in the 15th and 16th centuries. The heaviest of these giant boulders, aptly named the Great Stone Chisel, now weighs over 220 tons, but it once weighed over 330 tons.
The Meridian Gate, with spiers up to 38 meters, is located in the south. It serves as the formal entrance to the city. The gate leads visitors through a series of courtyards. They end at the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest and most central building where the Emperor did business.
In later times, after a lineage of Manchurian rulers formed the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), another building known as the “Hall of Mental Cultivation” assumed, in practice, the main workplace of the emperor.
One of the most important events in the Forbidden City took place in 1644. That year, a rebel army attacked Beijing, forcing the last emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Youjian (the Chongzhen Emperor) to commit suicide.
A Manchu army from Manchuria was invited by the remaining Ming supporters to march on Beijing and drive out the rebels. They succeeded, but the price of their success was the founding of a new dynasty led by the Manchus known as the Qing.
His rulers would rebuild Beijing and much of the Forbidden City after the devastation caused by rebel forces. They incorporated Manchu customs into daily life in the city, while continuing to respect earlier Ming customs.
The Qing Dynasty would be China's last imperial dynasty, ending in 1912 with the abdication of the 5-year-old Puyi.
The Qing dynasty reached the height of its power under the rule of Hongli (the Qianlong Emperor) who reigned from 1736-1795. In 1795, after ruling for 60 years, he officially retired as Emperor so that the length of his rule would not exceed that of his grandfather.
In doing so, he built a retirement palace called Ningshougong (Palace of Tranquility and Longevity) in the northeast part of the Forbidden City.
In practice, Emperor Qianlong was never able to fully enjoy this palace or his retirement, retaining unofficial power until his death in 1799. His rule would represent the height of the Qing dynasty, the 19th century being one of decline.
Even without the emperors, there was still a lot of history to be made in the Forbidden City. At chinese civil war which erupted after Second World War, the Nationalists took some 600,000 treasures, originally from the Forbidden City, to Taiwan, where they now form part of a Palace Museum in Taipei.
When the communists under the command of Hand took over Beijing, they didn't know what to do with the Forbidden City. The opulence of the place seemed at odds with Mao's way of thinking. The plans were to destroy it.
The plan was never put into action. When Richard Nixon made his groundbreaking trip to China in 1972, he visited the Forbidden City.
Today, there are still many more stories waiting to be told about the Forbidden City. The Palace Museum in Beijing has over 1.5 million artifacts from the city. This includes many items that have yet to be published.
Today the importance of the Forbidden City is again indisputable. Any misgivings Mao had about the Forbidden City when he first entered it have been put to rest, and today the site is recognized as one of the greatest heritage sites in China and the world.
