Former Imperial palace

Known also as the Forbidden City, it is situated in the citys center. Construction of the Palace began in 1406. After the completion, it was used as the imperial palace in the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368 -1911 AD). In history, a total of 24 emperors were enthroned here.

The Former Imperial Palace is the biggest one in size in the world. It covers an area of seven hundred twenty thousand square meters , with floor space of one hundred fifty thousand square meters, and more than 9,000 rooms. The main building is the Hall of Supreme Harmony, also known as the Hall of the Golden Throne. The hall is the most important and the largest structure in the palace. In history, it was used for ceremonial occasions such as the emperors birthday, the nomination of military leaders and coronations.

The buildings in the Palace constitute the largest and most complete existing ensemble of traditional Chinese architecture. The entire Palace area, rectangular in shape, is surrounded by walls ten meters high and a moat 52 meters wide. Each of the four corners of the wall has a tower with a multi-eaved, ridged roof covered with yellow glazed tiles. The Palace looks solemn and magnificent.

The Palace is now also a museum, which houses a great variety of rare cultural relics and works of art in history.

In December,1987 The Palace Museum in Beijing was listed in the Chronology of   Recognition of World Heritages in China.