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The Palace Museum, also called the Forbidden City, is one of the Country's
most important sights, for it is a symbol of traditional China and likewise
the biggest and best preserved masterpiece of Classical architecture.
The Forbidden City was completed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. It was
the home of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qin dynasties. Naturally it was
the scene of many important events affecting the course of Chinese history,including
political struggles and palace coups,some of them extremely tragic.
The Forbidden
City occupies a total space of more than 720, 000 square metres. It is
surrounded by a moat of 50m wide and a wall 10.4m high with watch towers
at each of the corners.The building in this palace complex are measured
in 9,999.5 bays.The surrounding palace walls are 10 metres high and have
a total length of 3,400 metres,and are protected by a 52-metre-wide moat.
The Forbidden City consists of two parts, the Outer Court and the Inner
Court.The Outer Court centres around the Hall of Supreme Harmony,the Midway
Hall of Harmony and the Hall of preserved Harmony,which are flanked by
the hall of Literary Glory and the Hall of Military Prowess.The Inner
Court centres around the Hall of Celestial Purity,the Hall of Union and
Peace and the Hall of Terrestrial Transquility,which are flanked by the
Six East Palaces and the Six West Palaces. The layout is orderly and symmetrical.
Every year
millions of Chinese and foreigners throng to the huge palace grounds to
see the treasures and precious objects, power and splendor abundance and
extravagance of former emperors.
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