A Sakura Story: China - Forbidden City

China - Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, shares the honor of being one of five world-famous palaces with the Palace of Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in England, the White House in the U.S. and the Kremlin in Russia. It is the most magnificent and splendid palace complex in China and was listed as a World Cultural Heritage Building in 1987.

It was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the construction of this group of buildings took fourteen years from 1406 to 1420. In the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it was the imperial palace where twenty-four emperors ascended the throne and exercised their strong power to the nation.

Our entrance ticket to the Forbidden city.

Consisting of more than 900 buildings the Forbidden City is absolutely huge – it’s a city within a city.

What I liked most about our visit to the Forbidden City was that even though we spent hours walking, everywhere we turned we were impressed by the massive scale and fine details of the palace. Every single inch of the Forbidden City had been crafted to be fit for the leaders of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Forbidden City is split into two parts, the Outer Court and the Inner Court. The Outer Court is where all political affairs were attended to and the Inner Court is where the Emperor and his Empress, wives, concubines, and wives of the former Emperor lived. The entire palace radiates from a central axis.

The central axis and the gates located on it were only allowed to be used by the Emperor himself. There were only two exceptions: one is on the Emperor's wedding day when the Empress entered the palace by the central axis, and the second is during the imperial examinations when the number one scholar was allowed to walk down the central axis to leave The Forbidden City.

Walking around the Forbidden City was amazing but also overwhelming, not only due to the scale of the palace, but of the grandeur of it. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that such an extraordinary place could be built for one man.

Kingsley forever the tourist using his tripod and iPhone to photograph the palace.

Colors and numbers were very important during China's feudal reigns. Buildings were required to meet strict guidelines. Almost every roof in The Forbidden City is covered with golden tiles. Only the Emperor and temples he deemed worthy were allowed to use golden tiles. The number of protective animals on the corners of the roofs was also highly important. According to Taoist tradition women are even numbers and men are odd numbers. Since the number 9 is the highest single digit odd number, it was reserved for the emperor, so most things in The Forbidden City come in sets of nine.