World

Forbidden City Trivia | 30 facts about the Beijing palace

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in Beijing and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO.

Let’s find out more about it!

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China.
It is located at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing.
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 was constructed from 1406 to 1420.
It 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 1420 and 1924.
The Forbidden City served as the home of Chinese emperors and their households.
It was the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government for over 500 years.
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 was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.
The complex consists of 980 buildings encompassing 8,886 rooms and covering 720,000 square metres (72 hectares)/178 acres.
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.
It is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures 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.
In 2018, The Forbidden City’s market value has been estimated at US$70 billion, making it both the world’s most valuable palace and the most valuable piece of real estate anywhere 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 km² (610 ha) Zhongnanhai which lies just west of the Forbidden City, the 2.9 km² (290 ha) Summer Palace in Haidian District, Beijing, and the 5.6 km² (560 ha) Chengde Mountain Resort in Chengde, Hebei Province.
The common English name “Forbidden City” is a translation of the Chinese name Zijin Cheng.
The name Zijin Cheng first formally appeared in 1576.
Another English name of similar origin is “Forbidden Palace”.
The name “Zijin Cheng” is a name with significance on many levels. 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 surrounding celestial region, the Ziwei Enclosure was the realm of the Celestial Emperor and his family.
The Forbidden City, as the residence of the terrestrial emperor, was its earthly counterpart. Jin, or Forbidden, which is misunderstood with the meaning of Jin.
Jin means “the place where Celestial Emperor live” not “forbidden”. Cheng means a city.
Today, the site is most commonly known in Chinese as Gùgōng, which means the “Former Palace”.
The museum which is based in these buildings is known as the “Palace Museum”
In Ming and Qing, the Forbidden City was also known as Da Neior “Palace City”
The Forbidden City is the world’s largest collection of well-preserved medieval wooden structures.
The Forbidden City is composed of a ceremonial Outer Court and a residential Inner Court. You can find many trees in the Inner Court, but no trees in the Outer Court.
The Forbidden City, a.k.a. the Palace Museum, is home to the best collection of Chinese historical artifacts in the world. Collections span thousands of years of Chinese history and it’s considered one of the best museums in the world. It’s top of China’s top 10 museums list.
In 1933, some national treasures in the Forbidden City were evacuated to preserve them from the threat of Japanese invasion. After the end of World War II, some of the collection was returned, but some is now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Due to its cultural significance and unique beauty, the Forbidden City is extremely popular with both Chinese and foreign tourists. The palace museum boasts 14 million visitors annually, more than any single section of the Great Wall.
Birds cannot land on the roofs of the Forbidden City.