īy October, the Manchus had achieved supremacy in northern China, and a ceremony was held at the Forbidden City to proclaim the young Shunzhi Emperor as ruler of all China under the Qing dynasty. He soon fled before the combined armies of former Ming general Wu Sangui and Manchu forces, setting fire to parts of the Forbidden City in the process.

In April 1644, it was captured by rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, who proclaimed himself emperor of the Shun dynasty. įrom 1420 to 1644, the Forbidden City was the seat of the Ming dynasty. The floors of major halls were paved with 'golden bricks' ( Chinese: 金磚 pinyin: jīnzhuān), specially baked paving bricks from Suzhou. Material used include whole logs of precious Phoebe zhennan wood ( Chinese: 楠木 pinyin: nánmù) found in the jungles of south-western China, and large blocks of marble from quarries near Beijing. Ĭonstruction lasted 14 years and required more than a million workers. When Hongwu Emperor's son Zhu Di became the Yongle Emperor, he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and construction began in 1406 on what would become the Forbidden City. In Ming and Qing, the Forbidden City was also known as Da Nei (大内) or 'Palace City' (宫城).Īerial view of the Forbidden City (1900–1901). The museum which is based in these buildings is known as the 'Palace Museum' ( Chinese: 故宫博物院 pinyin: Gùgōng Bówùyùan).

Today, the site is most commonly known in Chinese as Gùgōng ( 故宫), which means the 'Former Palace'. Jin means 'the place where Celestial Emperor live' not 'forbidden'. Jin, or Forbidden, which is misunderstood with the meaning of Jin. The Forbidden City, as the residence of the terrestrial emperor, was its earthly counterpart. The surrounding celestial region, the Ziwei Enclosure ( Chinese: 紫微垣 pinyin: Zǐwēiyuán), was the realm of the Celestial Emperor and his family. Zi, or 'Purple', refers to the North Star, which in ancient China was called the Ziwei Star, and in traditional Chinese astrology was the heavenly abode of the Celestial Emperor. The name ' Zijin Cheng' is a name with significance on many levels. Another English name of similar origin is 'Forbidden Palace'. The name Zijin Cheng first formally appeared in 1576. The common English name 'Forbidden City' is a translation of the Chinese name Zijin Cheng ( Chinese: 紫禁城 pinyin: Zǐjìnchéng lit. 6.1 Depiction in art, film, literature and popular culture.3.3.3 Cining Palace and Shoukang Palace.3.3.2 Six Western and Six Eastern Palaces.3.3 Inner Court or the Northern Section.3.2 Outer Court or the Southern Section.It was listed as the first batch of national key cultural relics in 1961. The Forbidden City in Beijing is one of the largest and most well-preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Some sources describe it as the largest palace in the world still in existence, but other Chinese imperial residences far exceed it in size, namely the 6.1 km 2 (610 ha) Zhongnanhai which lies just west of the Forbidden City, the 2.9 km 2 (290 ha) Summer Palace in Haidian District, Beijing, and the 5.6 km 2 (560 ha) Chengde Mountain Resort in Chengde, Hebei Province. In 2018, the Forbidden City's market value was estimated at 70 billion USD, making it both the world's most valuable palace and the most valuable piece of real estate anywhere in the world. Since 2012, the Forbidden City has seen an average of 14 million visitors annually, and received more than 19 million visitors in 2019. It is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. The palace exemplifies the opulence of the residences of the Chinese emperor and the traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The complex consists of 980 buildings, encompassing 8,886 rooms and covering 720,000 square metres (72 hectares)/178 acres. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987. Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Forbidden City served as the home of Chinese emperors and their households and was the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government for over 500 years.

The Forbidden City was constructed from 1406 to 1420, and was the former Chinese imperial palace and winter residence of the Emperor of China from the Ming dynasty (since the Yongle Emperor) to the end of the Qing dynasty, between 14. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the 22-hectare (54-acre) Zhongshan Park, the sacrificial Imperial Ancestral Temple, the 69-hectare (171-acre) Beihai Park, and the 23-hectare (57-acre) Jingshan Park. The Forbidden City ( Chinese: 紫禁城 pinyin: Zǐjìnchéng) is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing.

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