Probably the No. 2 must-go-to place for visitors in China is the Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing. Referred to as the Palace Museum by the Chinese, the forbidden City was inaccessible for any common people for 500 years. It served as the home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing, as well as the ceremonial and political center of the government. The Forbidden City first was laid out between 1406 and 1420 by Emperor Yongle. Since then it has been faced with numerous phases of destruction (through fires, etc.) as well as restoration and rebuilding. Most of the buildings that can be seen today are post 18th century.
The palace consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2. It is divided into various sections:
- throne rooms,
- ceremonial halls,
- living quarters for the royal family as well as members of the court,
- the imperial garden,
- and more.
Today, the palace is open to the general public and visitors should plan several hours for this visit, if they want to see all the different areas of this vast complex.
