Imperial Palace in Beijing

Natural Features

The Imperial Palace，also called The Forbidden City，in the heart of Beijing is the largest and most complete imperial palace and ancient building complex in China，and the world at large. Its construction began in completed l4 years later，having a history so far of some 600 years 1406 and Twenty-four emperors from the Ming and Cling(1644一1911) dynasties lived and ruled China from there. Most of the buildings in the Forbidden City were times，although they maintained the original architectural style

The Forbidden City，extending 753 meters from east to west,and 961 meters from north to south，makes a rectangular shape and covers a total area of 720 000 square meters. It consists of several dozen compounds of varying sizes and some 9900 bays of rooms，with a total floor area of 150 000 square meters. Most of the buildings were built with wood，roofed witty yellow glazed tiles and built on blue-and-white stone foundations，looking solemn and brilliant. City walls are 10 meters high，and a 52 meter-wide moat surrounds the Forbidden City. Three-storied towers are placed at each corner of the wall

The building arrangement within the Forbidden City is symmetrical. The Hall of Supreme Harmony，the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony,which comprise the outer palace，and the Hall of Heavenly Purity，the Hall of Union and the Hall of Earthly Tranquility,comprising the inner palace，stand in a line from south to north on the central axis The 8 km central axis runs through the entire old Beijing city to Yongdiangmen in the south and Zhonggulou in the north.The throne symobolizing imperial power is positioned at the center of this central axis.