Which is known as forbidden city

The Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most elegant of the three, also known as "Hall of the Golden Throne", is the place where grand ceremonies were held. It is Six of these pillars, decorated with gold dragons, surround the throne which rests on a two-meter-high platform. Sculptures of divine cranes, incense burners and tripods stand in front and a meticulously carved screen behind. The hall is filled with priceless gold art and jewelry on display.

The Hall of Central Harmony is where emperors rehearsed for ceremonies and took short rests before going into the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The inner palace is the area where emperors conducted daily routine work and lived with their empresses and concubines. Following the Republican Revolution of , the new provisional government at Nanjing struck an agreement with the Manchus, guaranteeing that after the last emperor, Aisin Giorro Pu Yi, abdicated, he and his huge family could continue to live in the Forbidden City on a stipend equivalent to four million US dollars a year.

In addition, the family would be granted ownership of the great art treasures that had been collected by previous emperors. Pu Yi continued to live in the palace until , when a warlord evicted him and forced him to escape to Tianjin.

In the Forbidden City became a public cultural and historical museum. At present, the Imperial Palace has become a major tourist attraction. They can also view displays of printings, calligraphy, bronze, jade, and other items from the vast imperial art collection which, despite pillaging by eunuchs, fire damage, and the loss of many items during the Chinese civil war from , still numbers over one million items, accounting for one-sixth of the China's total relic items.

Combining all the classical patterns of the ancient Chinese architecture, the Forbidden City represents the highest achievements of the ancient Chinese architecture and engineering, said Jin, the vice-president. Currently, a large-scale repair project, said to be the largest of its kind since , is proceeding smoothly in the Forbidden City.

The repair project, designated to restore and face-lift the original look of the imperial palace, began in and is expected to be completed before the convening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Jin said the repair project is expected to bring a "big change" to the Forbidden City, presenting visitors from around the world an ancient and magnificent architectural complex.

Useful information:. Photographing is forbidden. At Meridian Gate, visitors can rent a guide tape in different languages with a player, which introduces the history and architecture of the palace.

The tape and player can be returned at the north gate of the Palace Museum. Don't forget to visit the Jingshan Coal Hill Park, on the opposite of the palace's north gate, from where you can see the splendid layout of the palace.

Tel: Click here to see local weather. Click here for reservation. The Forbidden City is situated in the heart of Beijing. They correlated the emperor's abode, which they considered the pivot of the terrestrial world, with the Pole Star Ziwei yuan —believed to be the center of the heavens.

Because of its centrality and restricted access, the palace was called the Forbidden City. It was built from to by the third emperor of the Ming dynasty, the Yongle Emperor r. Over years later, the Ming dynasty fell to the Manchu Qing dynasty in Then, in , the Qing were subsequently overthrown by republican revolutionaries.

Scheduled to be opened to the public in mid, the Hong Kong Palace Museum, located at the harbor front of the West Kowloon Cultural District, is the first ever collaboration project of the Palace Museum in Beijing beyond the Chinese mainland. Thousands of kilometers away, a modern variant of the Palace Museum is preparing for its debut in Hong Kong in southern China.

By then, more than pieces from the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing, including first-class cultural relics of the country, will be displayed in Hong Kong where Eastern culture meets Western culture, said Louis Ng Chi-wa, director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Traditional-style bricks and tiles, which are elements typically seen in ancient Chinese architectures, are not used in the Hong Kong Palace Museum. However, through the mix of modern architectural techniques and traditional design concepts, you can still feel its classical oriental charms. The seven-story museum building is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The shape bears resemblance to many classic Chinese utensils, the most representative of which would be "fangding," a rectangular cauldron standing on four legs and crowned with two facing handles, one of the most important shapes used in ancient Chinese ritual bronzes.

Looking closer, people will discover various details echoing with those of the Palace Museum in Beijing. To imitate ancient city walls, large parts of the Hong Kong Palace Museum's walls are covered with fair-faced concrete, a modern finishing design exposing the concrete surface without any covering.