shan_china_tuning in_15 apr 11 :]

Forbidden city was called Gu Gong in Chinese.. It was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties.. Now known as the Palace Museum, it is to the North of Tienanmen Square.. The shape was rectangular and it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares.. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 rooms.. It has a gate in each side. The forbidden city is divided into 2 parts.. The southern section, or the outer court was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation.. The northern section, or the inner court was where he lived with his royal family.. Until 1942 when the last emperor of china was driven from the inner court, 14 emperors of the Ming dynasty and 10 emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here.. It is listed by UNESCO as the world cultural heritage site in 1987,the palace museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions world-wide.. It was said that a million workers including 100,000 artisans were driven into the long term hard labor.. Stone was needed quarried from Fangshan, a suburb of Beijing.. A well dug every 50 meters along the road in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice into the city.. It has an 8.6 meters wide base reducing to 6.66 meters wide at the top. The angular shape of the wall totally frustrates attempts to climb it.. The bricks were made from white lime and glutinous rice while the cement is made from glutinous rice and egg whites.. These incredible materials make the wall really strong.. Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in the forbidden city.. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles, decorations in the palace are painted yellow, even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process.. Wenyuange, the royal library, has a black roof.. The reason is that it was believed black presented water then and could extinguish fire..

shan5L