The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City in Beijing, the seat of Imperial power for five centuries, is one of the greatest sites in the world. Completed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty, it was designed to convey the incredible wealth and status of the Emperor, the Son of Heaven, the god-appointed link between the deity and his subjects. With vast courtyards, magnificent halls of audience and over nine thousand rooms, it is a palace and a city on a truly cosmic scale. Some 120 million people, more than the entire population of Europe, were ruled from the Forbidden City. The life of rigid protocol and ritual remained unchanged, frozen in time, until the Republican revolution meant the abdication of the last Emperor in 1912. The Forbidden City was renamed The Palace Museum and opened to the general public in 1924. With 100 illustrations, a newly designed plan and other maps, this is a superb and informative guide to a truly magnificent site.