Forbidden City in China

9 July 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

The Forbidden City - View from Jingshan Hill © Pixelflake/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Forbidden City – View from Jingshan Hill © Pixelflake/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in central Beijing in China. The former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty—the years 1420 to 1912, it now houses the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years. Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 hectares (over 180 acres). The palace exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.   read more…

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