Cité prohibited

The prohibited Quoted (Chinese: 故宫 ; Pinyin: gùgōng) is the imperial palace of Beijing whose construction was ordered by Yongle, third emperor Ming, and realized between 1407 and 1420. This Palate, of an unequalled scale - it extends on a surface from 1 km ² - fact part of the palates oldest and best preserved China. Nowadays, it became a Musée which preserves the imperial treasures of the Chinese Civilization old.

Names

This monumental site has several denominations:

Its name complete is the “City prohibited crimson” (translation of Chinese Zǐjìn Chéng , 紫禁城), in reference to the named star Zǐwēi Xīng (紫微星, the small star crimson) used in Chinese Astronomie, the equivalent of the pole star of Western astronomy. Indeed, as the imperial palace was in the center of Beijing and represented the administrative center of the State, one gave him the name of the star which was regarded as being in the center of the celestial firmament.
the name more the current is “ Cité prohibited ”, which comes owing to the fact that its access was interdict with the people at the time of large the Chinese emperors. Like residence of the latter, it became symbol of interdict.
In China currently, this site is generally called Gùgōng (故宫), which means “the old palate”.
the museum which is currently sheltered in these walls is called “Museum of the Palate”.

Description

Since the beginning of the fifteenth century, the heart of Beijing is around the prohibited City, so called Imperial palace of Ming and Qing. It is about the vastest architectural complex of China: a true city in the city! It covers 740.000 m ² and counts 9.999 parts and 50 ha of gardens. If the tradition is limited to 9.999 parts, it is because only their divinities had the right to build a palate including/understanding 10.000 parts. Number 10.000 symbolically represents “a countable infinity” in China. So the men tried to as approach close as possible their ideal perfection. The construction of the prohibited City lasted 14 years and more than one million workmen worked there! Between 1420 and 1911, a total of 24 emperors resided at it. It is called the prohibited City because it was reserved for the emperor, his family and to people who worked for him. Before 1924, year when it was opened with the public, nobody of other had the right to approach some nor to even look at it. Today, the prohibited City is one of the sites most visited in China. Architecture divided the City Prohibited into two parts: external court and interior court. The external Court, where the sovereign received his ministers and chaired the great official ceremonies, shelters the room of the Supreme Harmony (Taihe), the room of the Perfect Harmony (Zhonghe) and the Room of the Harmony Preserved (Baohe) as well as the principal side buildings--the room of the Literary Fame (Wenhua) and the Room of the Military Prowess (Wuying). Does the interior court include/understand especially the palate of Puret? Celestial (Qianqing), the room of the Union (Jiaotai) and the palate of the Terrestrial Peace (Kunning), which are surrounded respectively by the six Palates of the East and the Six Palates of the West. The interior court was used as apartment and study with the emperor with the imperial family and to the concubines.

Gallery

It was registered with the world heritage of humanity in 1987 by UNESCO. It is also the largest collection of constructions timber in the world.

See too

Various historical quarters of Beijing:

the imperial Quoted
the Tartar City
the Chinese City

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