50 Fun Facts About Forbidden City

How many Ming and Qing emperors lived in the Forbidden City?

The palace housed 24 emperors in all: 14 of the Ming dynasty and 10 of the Qing, across roughly five centuries of imperial use.

In which year was construction of the Forbidden City completed?

Construction was completed in 1420, fourteen years after work began in 1406, once the Ming court had moved its capital north to Beijing.

Which Ming emperor moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and began building the Forbidden City?

The Yongle Emperor, born Zhu Di, a son of the dynasty's founder, moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and ordered the palace built there.

Roughly how many workers were needed to build the Forbidden City?

More than a million labourers are traditionally said to have worked on the palace over its fourteen years of construction, hauling timber and stone from across the empire.

The 'golden bricks' paving the floors of the major halls were specially baked in which city?

The 'golden bricks' (jinzhuan) were fired at kilns in Suzhou, in Jiangsu, and shipped north along the Grand Canal to pave the floors of the great halls.

The 'purple' in the Chinese name Zijincheng refers to what?

The North Star, called the Ziwei star, was held to be the Celestial Emperor's heavenly seat; the palace was styled its earthly counterpart, hence 'Purple Forbidden City'.

What is the name of the northern gate of the Forbidden City?

The Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwumen) is the northern gate, facing Jingshan hill; it was originally the Gate of Black Warrior (Xuanwu), renamed to avoid the Kangxi Emperor's personal name.

By what name is the site most commonly known in modern Chinese?

Gugong, meaning 'Former Palace', is the everyday Chinese name for the site; the institution housed within it is the Palace Museum, Gugong Bowuyuan.

How many bays of rooms have surveys actually counted in the Forbidden City?

Surveys count 8,886 bays of rooms across the 980 surviving buildings of the Forbidden City, well short of the 9,999 that legend claimed.

In which year did UNESCO list the Forbidden City as a World Heritage Site?

UNESCO inscribed it in 1987 as the 'Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties'; the listing was extended in 2004 to include the Mukden Palace in Shenyang.

How many visitors did the Forbidden City receive in 2019?

More than 19 million people visited in 2019, about 19.3 million by the Palace Museum's count, up from roughly 17 million the year before.

Which rebel leader took the Forbidden City in April 1644 and declared himself Shun emperor?

Li Zicheng, the peasant-rebel leader, entered Beijing in April 1644 as the last Ming emperor hanged himself; within weeks Manchu and turncoat Ming forces drove him out and he burned parts of the palace.

Which young emperor was proclaimed ruler of all China at the Forbidden City in October 1644?

The Shunzhi Emperor, a young child, was enthroned at the palace in October 1644 as ruler of all China; the Manchus then renamed halls to stress 'harmony' and made nameplates bilingual.

During which conflict did Anglo-French forces occupy the Forbidden City in 1860?

The Second Opium War brought Anglo-French troops into Beijing in 1860; they occupied the Forbidden City until the war's end and burned the Old Summer Palace nearby.

Which uprising in 1900 caused Empress Dowager Cixi to flee the Forbidden City?

The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 brought the Eight-Nation Alliance into Beijing; Cixi fled west to Xi'an in disguise, and foreign troops held the palace until 1901.

Who was the final emperor to live in the Forbidden City?

Puyi, the last Qing emperor, abdicated as a child in 1912 yet was allowed to keep living in the Inner Court under his abdication terms until warlord troops forced him out.

In which year was the last emperor evicted from the palace, ending 500 years as an imperial residence?

In 1924 the warlord Feng Yuxiang seized Beijing and his troops expelled the former emperor from the Inner Court, ending the palace's five centuries as an imperial residence.

In which year was the Palace Museum established inside the Forbidden City?

The Palace Museum opened on 10 October 1925, the anniversary of the 1911 revolution, with a collection built on the Ming and Qing imperial holdings.

The finest part of the palace collection, evacuated in 1948, is now a museum in which city?

The finest pieces went to Taipei, where the National Palace Museum holds 2,972 of the 13,491 crates first evacuated ahead of the Japanese in the 1930s and shipped to Taiwan in 1948-49.

Who sent an army battalion to guard the Forbidden City during the Cultural Revolution?

Zhou Enlai, premier since 1949, sent an army battalion to guard the palace in 1966 as Red Guards attacked other heritage sites; its gates stayed sealed until 1971.

How long is the Forbidden City from north to south?

The walled rectangle measures 961 m from north to south and 753 m from east to west, and its central axis doubles as the central axis of old Beijing.

The palace's central axis is slightly off true north; researchers think it was aligned with which city?

Shangdu (Xanadu), the Yuan summer capital in Inner Mongolia, lies roughly along the extended axis; the tilt of about two degrees was inherited from the Yuan-era layout of Beijing.

How wide is the moat surrounding the Forbidden City?

The moat is 52 m wide and 6 m deep, a defensive ring just outside the palace wall.

What is the name of the main southern entrance of the Forbidden City?

The Meridian Gate (Wumen) is the southern entrance, a U-shaped gatehouse with two projecting wings and five archways, the central one kept for the emperor.

Which palace gate has only eight rows of golden door nails instead of nine?

The East Glorious Gate has eight rows of nails rather than the imperial nine: coffins of emperors and empresses left the palace through it, so it took the even, yin number.

Apart from the emperor, who was allowed to use the central Imperial Way through the main southern gate?

A new empress and top exam graduates were the only exceptions: the empress passed through on her wedding day, and the top three scholars of the palace examination left by it once.

How many bridges cross the Inner Golden Water River in the square inside the main southern gate?

The river is spanned by 5 marble bridges, the central one reserved for the emperor, in the square between the southern gate and the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

What is the largest building in the Forbidden City, used for enthronements and imperial weddings?

The Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihedian), the largest surviving wooden structure in China, rises about 30 metres above its square and hosted enthronements, imperial weddings and New Year audiences.

What is the set of metal balls hanging from the ceiling dragon in the largest hall called?

The Xuanyuan Mirror is the cluster of metal balls that hangs from the mouth of the coiled dragon in the ceiling caisson, named for Xuanyuan, a legendary sovereign of Chinese antiquity.

The final stage of the Imperial Examination was held in which building of the Outer Court?

The Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian), northernmost of the three great halls, hosted the palace examination, the final stage of the imperial exams, and was otherwise used for rehearsing ceremonies.

How was the 200-ton carved stone ramp behind the northernmost of the three great halls probably transported?

On an ice sledge along a water-lubricated ice path: a 2013 engineering study found that winter ice roads, sprinkled with water, let teams haul the 16.57 m monolith some 70 km from quarries at Fangshan.

In the Inner Court, which building was the Ming emperors' residence, later used as the audience hall?

The Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqinggong) housed the Ming emperors; later Qing rulers used it as an audience hall, beneath the tablet reading 'Justice and Honour' where the succession edict was hidden.

From the Yongzheng Emperor onwards, Qing emperors actually lived and worked in which smaller building?

The Hall of Mental Cultivation (Yangxindian), west of the main axis, became the emperors' home and office from Yongzheng's reign; Cixi later ruled from behind a screen in its eastern chamber.

What is stored in the Hall of Union, between the emperor's and empress's palaces?

The 25 imperial seals of the Qing dynasty are kept in this square, pyramid-roofed hall, where yin and yang were said to meet; the set was fixed at twenty-five in the 18th century.

How many consorts' palaces lay west of the Inner Court's main halls, matched by the same number east?

Six palaces stood on each side: Cixi lived in the Six Western Palaces and was called the 'western empress', while her co-regent Ci'an, in the east, was the 'eastern empress'.

Which emperor built the Forbidden City's Palace of Tranquil Longevity as a retirement complex?

The Qianlong Emperor built the Palace of Tranquil Longevity in the 1770s for his planned retirement; the complex mirrors the whole palace, with its own outer court, inner court and garden.

What colour are almost all the roof tiles in the Forbidden City?

Yellow glazed tiles, the emperor's colour, cover almost every roof; a few buildings break the rule, such as the crown prince's quarters, which had green tiles to signify growth.

Why does the library at the Pavilion of Literary Profundity have black roof tiles?

It was linked to water and so to fire prevention: in five-element theory black stands for water, so the Pavilion of Literary Profundity, which held the Siku Quanshu library, wore black tiles against fire.

How many roof statuettes top the largest hall, more than any other imperial building was allowed?

Ten statuettes line each ridge of the great throne hall, the only building granted that number; the tenth, the Hangshi, appears nowhere else, while minor buildings carry three or five.

The main halls are arranged in groups of three to echo which trigram, representing Heaven?

Qian, the trigram of three unbroken lines, stands for Heaven; the three great halls of the Outer Court and the three main palaces of the Inner Court echo its form.

The artificial hill of Jingshan Park, north of the palace, was made from what?

Soil dug out for the moat and lakes was heaped up north of the palace to form Jingshan, also called Prospect Hill, which shields the site from the north in feng shui terms.

The former royal garden of Zhongnanhai, west of the palace, now serves as what?

Headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party and State Council: the lakeside compound, centred on two connected lakes, has housed China's top leadership since 1949.

Whose portrait hangs at the centre of Tiananmen Gate, south of the palace?

Mao Zedong's portrait has hung over the central archway since 1949, flanked by placards reading 'Long live the People's Republic of China' and 'Long live the great unity of the world's peoples'.

According to its 2016 audit, roughly how many pieces of art does the Palace Museum hold?

The 2016 inventory counted 1.86 million objects, including some 340,000 ceramics, nearly 50,000 paintings and about 30,000 jades.

Which country made most of the Palace Museum's foreign mechanical timepieces?

Britain made the largest share of the foreign clocks among the palace's 1,000-plus timepieces, prized by 18th-century emperors; Chinese examples came from the palace's own workshops.

Which film was the first feature authorised to shoot inside the Forbidden City?

The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci's epic about the last Qing ruler, was the first feature allowed to film inside the palace; it went on to win nine Academy Awards including Best Picture.

A large filming replica of the Forbidden City stands at Hengdian World Studios in which province?

Hengdian World Studios lies in Dongyang, in Zhejiang province, south of Shanghai; its full-scale palace replica lets period dramas shoot without risking the real one.

UNESCO recognises the Forbidden City as the world's largest collection of what?

Preserved ancient wooden structures: UNESCO's World Heritage listing called the palace the largest such collection in the world; China had already placed it on its first national priority list in 1961.

Whole logs of which precious wood, hauled from south-western jungles, were used to build the palace?

Phoebe zhennan (nanmu), a fragrant, rot-resistant timber, was felled as whole logs in the jungles of Sichuan and Yunnan and floated to Beijing over several years to form the great halls' columns.

How high is the city wall that surrounds the Forbidden City?

The wall rises 7.9 m (26 ft), with a rammed-earth core faced in brick; it is 8.62 m wide at the base, tapering to 6.66 m at the top.