Forbidden City

Forbidden City

Beijing, May 2010

The Forbidden City
was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.
It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum.
For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their households,
as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms
and covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture
and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere.

The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 and is listed by UNESCO
as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. (wikipedia)