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The Forbidden CityThe Forbidden City is located in the middle of Beijing. The common English name “The Forbidden City” is a translation of the Chinese name Zijin Cheng, literally “Purple Forbidden City”.
Jin, or “Forbidden”, referred to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor’s permission.
The construction began in 1406. The fabulous complex consists of 800 buildings with 8,886 rooms. It covers 720,000 square metres. It was the imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty (from 1420 to 1644) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1912).
After being home to twenty-four emperors, fourteen of the Ming Dynasty and ten of the Qing Dynasty, the Forbidden City ceased to be the political centre of China in 1912, with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China.
The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site of Unesco in 1987 as the “Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties”. The site is listed as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
It now houses the Palace Museum.
