Everyone who want visit Beijing, China should know about Forbidden City, right? This ancient imperial palace of China was where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties handled court business and resided. 24 emperors, 14 of the Ming and 10 of the Qing, ruled the country from here over a span of nearly 500 years. Because of its rich history and impressive wooden architecture, Forbidden City even was listed by the UNESC0 as a world cultural heritage site in 1987. Here we will give you some details about the architecture and its interesting facts that will increase your knowledge about this palace before visit.

Layout of Forbidden City
Taihedian, The Most Important Hall in Outer Court

Forbidden City covers an area of 178 acres that include 90 palaces with courtyards, 980 total buildings, and at least 8,700 rooms. It has known as the largest collection of ancient wooden structures in the world. Forbidden City separated into two main sections including the Inner Court and Outer Court. Outer Court was the place where emperors conducted official ceremonies. Major structures of the Outer Court are the Three Grand Halls-Taihedian, Zhonghedian and Baohedian-flanked by Wenhuadian and Wuyingdian. Among all of them, Taihedian is the most important and largest, it was also used for grand ceremonies such as Chinese New Year, Winter Solstice, birthday of the emperor, conferment of empress, wedding ceremony the emperor, etc.

Whereas the Inner Court, it was used as the living area of emperor and his family. The emperor himself slept in a building called the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The Empress lived in a building called the Palace of Earthly Tranquility.

Interesting Facts about Forbidden City
Buildings with Yellow Roof

The named of Forbidden City is very ideal for the palace because in ancient times of China, common people cannot enter the palace freely without permission from the emperor. Besides, while exploring Forbidden City, you can personally have a look to every roofs of the buildings inside the palace were made with yellow tiles. This color used because yellow was the exclusive color of the emperor and symbolized his ultimate power. One exceptional for the roof color you will find in the library building which color black, to symbolize water in order to protect the writings from fire.

Another detail that you should see is in each building's roof during Forbidden City tour, there is decorated with a line of small statues, with the importance of the building determining how many it featured. The highest number is ten for the emperor building. Forbidden City covers a huge complex more like a big city than a palace. The main part of the city even was constructed over 14 years (1407-1420) using 200,000 laborers. Never imagine if you spend the whole life inside the palace, right?