The Forbidden City: Chinese Imperial Palace

Situated in the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. It is to the north of Tiananmen Square and is the world's largest palace complex consisting of 980 buildings and covering 72 ha (180 acres).  Surrounded by a 52-meter-wide moat and a 10-meter-high wall are more than 8,700 rooms. The wall has a gate on each side.

The Forbidden City

It was orignally constructded in 1407, the 5th year of the Yongle reign of the third emperor (Emperor Chengzu, Zhu Di) of the Ming dynasty and was finished in 1420. It was said that a million workers including one hundred thousand artisans were driven into the long-term hard labor. Stone needed was quarried from Fangshan District.  It was also said a well was dug every fifty meters along the road in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice into the city. Huge amounts of timber and other materials were freighted from faraway provinces.

The Forbidden City is listed as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987 and is now one of the most popular tourist attractions world-wide.