The
Forbidden City was the Chinese sovereign palace from the Ming Dynasty(1420) to
the end of the Qing dynasty(1912). It located in the center of Beijing, China.
It apportioned as the home of emperors and their family as well as the
liturgical and political center of Chinese government. It was built from the
year of 1406 to 1420, and it consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 ha. It has
a great collection of artwork and artifacts that were built upon the imperial
collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
In
the year of 1369, Zhu Yuanzhang created Ming Dynasty and claimed the be the
emperor. He named Ying Tian Fu to Nanjing and Kaifeng to Beijing; he started to
build the Capital in Fengyang, Beijing. Because all the people went to build
other Palaces, Nanjing Palace was called to stop since there were not enough
people. Eight years later, Emperor Zhu gave up the projects of concentration
camps and focused on the construction of Nanjing Palace. Then in the next few
years, he let people build many temples inside of the Nanjing Palace until he
died. Then the later emperors of the Ming Dynasty continued to construct it and
made it much bigger. The palace was burned at the end of the Ming Dynasty and
was rebuilt during Qing Dynasty.
The
Forbidden City consists of many different parts. There are so many Palaces so
that you could not walk through the whole Forbidden City for a whole day. The
main palace is called Taihe Palace, and emperors often held big ritual
ceremonies inside of it. Yangxin Palace is the place where emperors lived; it
has complete facilities and comfortable space to relax. Many of the palaces are
residential places for emperors’ wives. The emperors ranked their wives, and
the bigger Palaces were for those wives who had higher ranks.
After
the Revolution of 1911 in China, the Forbidden City belonged to the state;
Puyi, the last emperor in Chinese history, was allowed to live inside of the
palace temporarily. In the year of 1942, Feng Yuxiang launched a coup in
Beijing and expelled Puyi. At the same time, he established the Aftermath
Committee of Qing Dynasty and took over the Forbidden City. On October 10th,
1925, the Palace Museum was formally established; it also opened to all the
people who want to visit. The Forbidden City has been renamed to “Gu Gong”,
which means the “Past Palace.” With the downfall of the Qing Dynasty, many
buildings in Gu Gong collapsed. In the year of 1961 after the People’s Republic
of China has established, the State Department announced that Gu Gong was the
first one of the Major Historical and Culture Site Protected at the National
Level. In the 1950s to 1960s, it has been maintained and repaired massively. In
1987, Gu Gong had been a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Now
we can see visitors from all over the world come to visit the Forbidden City
every day. It became one of the worthiest sites to visit when people comes to Beijing.
