The Palace Museum (Forbidden City)
The vast imperial palace of the Ming and Qing emperors, now a museum of Chinese art.
The Forbidden City was the imperial palace of China for nearly five centuries. Construction began in 1406 under the Yongle Emperor, who moved the Ming capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and was completed in 1420. Fourteen Ming and ten Qing emperors lived and ruled here until the last emperor, Puyi, was expelled in 1924. The Palace Museum was established within its walls in 1925, and the site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The complex covers about 72 hectares and measures 961 metres from north to south and 753 metres from east to west, enclosed by a wall 7.9 metres high and a moat six metres deep. Some 980 buildings survive. The southern Outer Court, dominated by the Halls of Supreme, Central and Preserving Harmony, was used for state ceremonies, while the Inner Court to the north contained the residences of the emperor, empresses and consorts, together with the Imperial Garden.
The Palace Museum holds more than 1.8 million objects, including paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, bronzes, jades, clocks and items used at court. Selections are shown in specialist galleries within former palace buildings and in temporary exhibitions, notably in the Meridian Gate galleries and the Hall of Literary Glory. Visitors follow a one-way route from the Meridian Gate in the south to exits at the Gate of Divine Prowess in the north and the East Prosperity Gate.
Highlights
- Largest surviving complex of traditional Chinese timber buildings
- Hall of Supreme Harmony, used for coronations and major state ceremonies
- Meridian Gate, the monumental southern entrance to the palace
- Collection of more than 1.8 million objects from the imperial court and beyond
- Imperial Garden and residential courtyards of the Inner Court
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