Palace Museum (Forbidden City)

Pass through the Tiananmen Gate archway and walk north along the brick-paved road, and you will be awed by a vast, towering complex of buildings. Yes, you are entering the former Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is the largest and best-preserved palace complex in the world. It measures 753 metres from east to west and 961 metres from north to south, covering 720,000 square metres, with 9,999½ rooms in total. Twenty-four emperors lived here. Together with Versailles, Buckingham Palace, the White House and the Kremlin, it is counted among the world's five great palaces.

The palaces of the Forbidden City are arranged along a north–south central axis and extend outward to either side, with a straight north–south alignment and strict bilateral symmetry. The rigorous symmetry of its architecture creates an unwavering sense of authority and a distinctive rhythm that cannot be imitated.

The Forbidden City can broadly be divided into two parts. The south was the zone of political activity, known as the Outer Court, while the north was the living quarters, known as the Inner Court. The three great halls of the Outer Court, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, are the most captivating buildings in the Forbidden City. The Inner Court was where the emperor conducted daily affairs and where he and his consorts lived.

The Palace Museum houses precious artworks from China's many dynasties, numbering in the millions by some counts and accounting for more than one-sixth of the nation's total cultural relics, many of them unique national treasures. Pausing before these dazzling treasures, you can still sense the opulence of imperial life and the weathered sense of history it has left behind.