"The forbidden city" A city made for heaven

The Forbidden City, also known as the Imperial Palace or Imperial Palace Museum and located in the center of Beijing, was the center of power of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties for a long period since 1420 until 1912

That complex of palaces was baptized as the "Forbidden City" because ordinary people could not enter without special permits at that time and only courtiers could get an audience with the emperor.

The Forbidden City was built between 1406 and 1420. There lived 24 emperors until 1911, when the revolution that overthrew the regime of China's last feudal dynasty, the Qing, took place.

The Palace, rectangular in shape, covers an area of 720,000 square meters and occupies a third of the eight-kilometer-long central axis that divided the ancient city of Beijing.

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The numerous constructions of the palace, surrounded by a pit of 52 meters wide and a wall of ten meters high, are distributed symmetrically along a central north-south axis.

The size and the space of the palace were calculated with exactitude according to the functions and different importance of each one of them. The palace is divided mainly into two parts: the Exterior Court and the Interior Court, and the most impressive buildings are the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Dian), the Hall of Central Harmony (Zhonghe Dian) and the Hall of Harmony Preserved (Baohe Dian).

Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Dian)

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Hall of Central Harmony (Zhonghe Dian)

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Hall of Conserved Harmony (Baohe Dian)

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It is said that everything in the Forbidden City was built taking into account the numerical harmony, based on the relations between the odd numbers. For example, it is said that there are 9,999 stays throughout the complex. Although it seems more a legend, since very few people have been able to prove it.

In fact, only about one fifth of the complex is currently visited, although gradually more and more spaces will be opened to tourists.

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What is certain is that there are many elements based on odd numbers. And perhaps one of the most striking is the impressive Wall of the Nine Dragons which is one of the most photogenic spaces in the group.

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The Hall of Happy Longevity has recently opened to the public and there is a fantastic exhibition of objects made of precious stones. It is a very official space, although it is even more so in the Good Governance Standards Hall, where an imperial golden throne is raised over the figure of two elephants.

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The tour concludes by leaving the Gate of Divine Power, precisely at the other end of the Royal Palace with respect to the entrance point by Tiannamen Square.

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