• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is located on Tianenmen Square in Beijing (then called Peking in the Western world). Commoners were not allowed to enter the city, which was surrounded by 35-foot walls and a moat. The city was built between 1406 and 1420 by the Ming emperors. It contains the palaces of 24 Ming and Ch'ing emperors, as well as white-marble terraces, gardens, and shrines, encompassing 250 acres and over 9,000 rooms. The city's walls are red and the roof is gold - the colors of the imperial court. No one was allowed to use the color yellow except the emperor. Almost everything around him was yellow: the floor tiles, the dishes, even his pillow cases and blankets.

Whereas the three outer walls of the Chinese, the Tartar, and the Imperial City were sombre and dark, striking one with dread and terror, the wall of the Forbidden City, far from being warlike, was a delicate pink, like the rosy hue of blossoms, and covered with bright tiles of a golden yellow color, shining brilliantly in the sun. All buildings in the Forbidden City were covered with these gold-colored tiles, that here and there, seen from afar in perspective, rose above the walls, and on each corner of the wall there was a magnificent pavilion also covered with golden tiles. This pink wall and the glittering golden tiles impress one like something in a fairy story. In the clear, pellucid sunlight, under the cloudless sky of Peking, stood this Forbidden City, glimmering like some legendary city of enchantment. It is mysterious in the fullest sense. No one lived there but the emperor and imperial ladies and dowagers and eunuchs. Even the Prince Regent lives without the Forbidden City, entering it only during the daytime for the transaction of State affairs. Ministers and Councillors of State of the highest rank were only admitted by special authorisation.

The Imperial Palace, or Purple Forbidden City, in Beijing is one of three palaces which existed inside the walls of the city or nearby it by the time of the Qing dynasty, the others being the adjacent Sea Palaces and the Summer Palace, outside the walls to the west. The Imperial Palace, originally constructed 1406-1420, is the earliest and most important of these, as well as containing the finest collection of buildings. Its formal plan reflects the fact that the most important ceremonies of state took place here, compared with the informal and more domestic arrangements of the other palaces, preferred by the famous Dowager Empress Cixi (who died in 1908).

The great halls of state are arranged along a central axis, becoming more private as one progresses to the rear (northern end) of the palace. The emperors of the Ming dynasty (from the building of the palace until 1644) also lived in these halls, but the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) emperors lived in halls in courtyards on either side and only used the central buildings for cere- monial purposes. The last emperor, Pu Yi, lived in the palace after his abdication until 1924. The Palace Museum, which administers the site, is completing the restoration of two ranges of eunuch's quarters adjacent to the northern wall of the palace, which date from its original construction, and are planning the conservation of the Imperial Library, built by Emperor Qian Long (1736-1795). The rise in motor traffic in the capital has led to a deterioration in air quality, resulting in increasing erosion of the marble sculptures and balustrades which surround the more importanThalls in the palace, but this is still less than many other cities, although it will require careful monitoring.

Located in the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City is the largest and best-preserved mass group of palaces in China. The palaces are fully walled on four sides by 10-meter high walls, which extend 760 meters from east to west and 960 meters from north to south. At each comer of the walls, there is a three-story watchtower. Outside the walls a 52-meter wide moat surrounds the "city." Occupying an area of 72 hectares, the Forbidden City altogether has 9,999 buildings. This number was purposely just one less than ten thousand, the figure that was exclusively used to wish the emperor longevity. Almost all the buildings are symmetrically arranged, with the main halls on the meridian line and the less important halls and houses on the east and west sides.

Construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406,the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Yongle of the Ming dynasty, and was completed 14years later. Altogether 24 emperors lived there over a span of 491 years in two dynasties, ending with the last emperor in 1925. In general, the Forbidden City is divided into three parts: the outer court where the emperor received high officials and conducted the administration of the empire, the inner court where the emperor lived with his empresses and concubines, and the Imperial Garden where the imperial family spent their leisure time.

Tiananmen Square is the physical center of Beijing as well as the symbolic center for all of China. The square was built in 1958 and is one of the largest public plazas in the world. It measures 500 meters from east to west and 880 meters from north to south; the total area is approximately 50 hectares. During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the space occupied by today's square was a warren of offices of different government ministries, divided in the middle by a wide road running south from the Tiananmen (The "Gate of Heavenly Peace," the front gate of the Forbidden City) to the Qianmen ("Front Gate") of the old city wall (now destroyed) surrounding the Qing dynasty government district.

Around Tiananmen Square stand the Great Hall of the People (to the west), the museums of Chinese History and the Chinese Revolution (to the east), and Chairman Mao's Mausoleum and the Qianmen ("Front Gate") to the south. Standing in the center of the square is a monument honoring the "people's heroes," those who sacrificed their lives for "national independence and in wars against foreign aggression." The Great Hall of the People serves as the seat for China's parliament, the National People's Congress, and is the center for many political activities. The assembly hall inside the building is probably the largest meeting hall in China with 10,000 seats. Grand banquets for heads of state are held in its banqueting hall. Separate reception halls built in each local style represent each of China's provinces, as well as Hong Kong and Macao. The entire hall was built in 1959, in only ten months, for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.