The Forbidden City

Author: Zanine Wolf

Forward
1055 views

Average: 5 (1 vote)

Hours: 8:30am to 5:00pm
Address: North of Tiananmen Square, Dongcheng District
东城区天安门广场北边
Phone number: +86 (0)10 6523 7344
Price: 40-60 Yuan/ticket

The Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace, the National Palace Museum, the Purple Forbidden City and Gugong （故宫）, is probably Beijing’s top tourist attraction. This huge palace complex (one full square kilometer), previously home to 23 successive Emperors, is located in the heart of Beijing, on the north side of Tiananmen Square. Because of its size, a visit to the palace can be a bit tiring as a good amount of walking is involved, so be prepared. Three hours should be enough time to cover some of the palace but a person could spend twice that amount of time if they wanted to be more thorough. Not suprisingly, the Forbidden City is very well catered to tourists as shops selling sandwiches, drinks, guide books, and souvenirs abound. There is even a Starbucks!

Whilst the palace buildings in themselves are beautiful, the incredible size of the complex can actually make it seem a bit like a ghost town. If you don’t learn a bit about the history of the palace before your visit you might find yourself wandering around aimlessly. Try and do a little research before you go to enhance your visit. Alternatively you can pick up an audio guide at the entrance for 40 yuan. Once you know something about the history of the Forbidden City it only takes a little bit of imagination to try and conjure up images of what life inside the palace would have been like centuries ago when it was populated with royalty, eunuchs, servants and concubines.

The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape, surrounded by a moat and a 10 metre high wall, and has 9,999 rooms (one short of the heavenly number of 10,000). The southern section, or the Outer Court, contains the Hall of Sacred Harmony, Hall of Complete Harmony and Hall of Preserving Harmony. The northern section, or the Inner Court, contains a number of other halls and the Imperial Garden. It is here that the Emperor and the Royal Family actually lived.

The complex is currently undergoing major renovations in preparation for the 2008 Olympics, so it is likely that some of the buildings and halls will be covered with canvas until then. Part of the renovation entails repainting the buildings; whilst the bright colours are beautiful it does seem to render the place less authentic as the buildings take on the appearance of looking slightly newish once they’ve been painted.

How to Get There:

Take subway line 2 and get off at Tiananmen West (天安门西) stop. Look for the giant portrait of Mao at the north end of Tiananmen Square, the entrance to the Forbidden City is directly underneath the portrait.

Add new Review

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the custom essay writing center and ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government...

So add one more awesome place to the "must visit" list - check ;)

As is famous in Chinese history, the emperor always had many concubines. Besides his wife, the highest ranks of concubines were: Guifei(second to the empress), and Bin(3rd to the empress). Not all the concubines had the chance to sleep with the emperor. Some even had not one chance at all. But all of those women were not allowed to marry others.
The emperor had so many concubines and maids, so he was afraid that some might have affairs woth the male servants. For this reason, the eunuch appeared to serve the emperor, the empress and the concubines.

Opening Time
8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., last admission at 4:00 p.m. in summer and 3:50 p.m. in winter.

Admission Fee：
Busy season (4.16-10.15): 60 yuan/person
Off-season (10.16-4.15): 40 yuan/person
(Selective charge at Treasure House:10 yuan/person )

The Palace Museum ,known as the Forbidden City, was the home to 24 Ming and Qing emperors, off-limits for 500 years. It stands in the center of Beijing ,covering 720,000 m2 ,owning 800 buildings and 9999 rooms, constituting a priceless testimony to Chinese civilization during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Forbidden City is one of the architectural wonders of the world. The construction took 14 years and was finished in 1420. The former Palace’s outer court with its halls of Supreme, Central and Preserved Harmony and side buildings ,was where the emperor palaces handled the state affairs and held grand ceremonies. The 3 main and 6 eastern and western palaces form the inner court, where the emperor dealt with daily government affairs, and where the imperial family lived. The last dynasty fell in 1911, but Emperor Puyi still lived in the inner court .In 1925, it was converted into a museum and opened to the public. In 1987, the Palace was inscribed on the UNESCO[the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization] World Cultural Heritage List.

Oh, how great the Forbidden City is, i dream about this place many times, and every time when i talked to my friends who have been to The Forbidden City before, i just so jealous. Even though i can look at the videos or photos, but i just can not feel the atmosphere, hope i will have a vocation and go to Beijing, China.

Forbidden city is the first stop of my Beijing Trip, it was hug too me and so many people here.
I was walking around and try to take some photos, but when i came to Nine Dragon Screen some Chinese people came to me and said they want to have a picture with me, so i guess the Forbidden City is not the attraction here, me and other foreign guys are part of it. :p Sure i said yes to them with my great smile.

A movie talked about the Forbidden city which i think it`s totally indicate how it become the most important part of China.
"Chinese Imperial palace, two colors, red and gold, red walls and gold roofs, the red stands for blood, the gold for money, blood and money Asian conception of power, who could found the power like this? Only the Emperor dare do it." Which i agree and i think it`s true.It`s the first time i heard about people talking about Forbidden city like these, impressive.