The Forbidden City

The Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City, is located in the heart of Beijing. It has served as the residence to 24 emperors throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties between 1368 A.D. and 1911 A.D. but is now used as the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City has been the center of the highest authority for more than 500 years in China. With garden landscapes and an enormous architectural complex consisting of 9,000 chambers and halls containing furniture and works of art, it has become the historical landmark witnessing invaluable Chinese civilization during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Table of Contents Part 1: Initiation of the Forbidden City The Forbidden City had been created history and civilization.It situated on the Imperial City during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Upon the establishment of the Ming Dynasty,the place had been reconstructed and in 1406 the Forbidden City had been made. Part 2: The pinnacle of the flourishing age In 1644,the Manchus had achieved supremacy in northern China, and a ceremony was held at the Forbidden City to proclaim the young Shunzhi Emperor as ruler of all China under the Qing Dynasty... Part 3: Governing the country by rites The east gates are called the "East flower Gate". All gates in the Forbidden City are decorated with a nine-by-nine array of golden door nails, except for the East Glorious Gate, which has only eight rows... Part 4: Administration of state affairs The Hall of Mental Cultivation is a particularly significant building in the inner courtyard of the Forbidden City. It was here that from the time of Yongzheng Emperor in the 18th century the Qing Emperors lived and ruled the Chinese Empire. Part 5: Between the state and family During the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900,Cixi ordered Consort Zhen to be taken out of the prison and finally she ordered Consort Zhen to be thrown into a well behind the Ningxia Palace in the north-eastern part of the Forbidden City. Part 6: Porcelains in the Forbidden City The are 340,000 pieces of porcelain in the Forbidden City. These include imperial collections from the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, as well as pieces commissioned by the Palace, sometimes by the Emperor personally. Part 7: Paintings an calligraphic works in the Forbidden City In the room Hall of Three Treasures, an emperor admired paintings and works of calligraphy. 200 years ago, Emperor Qianlong would often sit in the small room of less than 6 squar meters, and quitely appreciated three works of calligraphy... Part 8: Jade objects in the Forbidden City Nobody knows how long this jade disk had been there, but opposite the side was located "Stands the Hall of Mental Cultivation", the place where Qing emperors worked the lived. So when the emperors delt with the state affairs, he could see the jade disk from the throne. Part 9: Western Fever in the Forbidden City During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, the thing taht most represented the western advanced techniques and which was therefore the most creative gadget in the Forbidden City was the clock. Part 10: From palace to museum On October the 10th, 1995, more than 3,000 distinguished guests and 23,000 ordinary citizens gathered on the square at the Gate of Heavenly Purity in the Forbidden City to witness a special event: The opening ceremony of the Palace Museum. Part 11: The shifting and loss of national treasures For most people, November the 1st, 1924 was an ordinary day, but for Pu Yi, the last emperor of Qing Dynansty, it was an unextrordinary one, as he did not expected that it would be his last day in the Fobidden City. Part 12: The everlasting Forbidden City Shortly after the founding of new China, a scholar describes his inner feelings: The sky is blue, the water is sweet, and the air is fresh. We can breathe freely now... With the arrival of the new era came also a feeling of joy, and the Imperial Palace turned a new page in the time when there was a new atmosphere.