The Forbidden City of China

The Forbidden City of China

The Forbidden City of China is located in Beijing, China and has nine-thousand nine-hundred and ninety nine buildings spread across two hundred and fifty acres. The reason for the nines is because the lucky number for the imperial palace is nine.   Most of China’s rarest treasures and artifacts are held in The Forbidden City. The construction of The Forbidden City started in 1404 and ended in 1420. New Years day,1421, was when the construction was officially completed on the Forbidden City. The Chinese used white lime and glutinous rice to make the bricks for the city and they made the cement out of glutinous rice and egg whites. Twenty four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties were the first to live there, and it was used to house emperors for about five-hundred years up until 1912.
There are two parts of the Forbidden City: The inner court is where the emperor and his family lived and the outer court is where the emperor governed the city. The outer court is made up of the Hall of Protective Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony, and the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The Gate of Supreme Harmony’s door has nine rows of nine nails because of the lucky number nine, and is also the largest free standing gate in the city. The inner court is made up of the Hall of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union and Peace, and the Hall of Earthly Peace. The two parts of the city are separated by the Gate of Celestial Purity. The Meridian Gate is another name for the main gate and is locate on the south side of the city. The Gate of Divine Might is the gate on the north side of the city. The Forbidden City is surrounded by the protective river of the city, a man-made moat.
The square between the Meridian Gate and the Gate of Supreme Harmony is used before an important ceremony for the lining up of guards. The Hall of Central Harmony is where the emperors rested before a ceremony. The Hall of Protective Harmony is the place where banquets were held and where they would interview the...