The Former Imperial Palace in Beijing

The former Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City, was the residence to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties from 1420 to 1911. The entire palace area, rectangular in shape and 720,000 square metres in size, takes up one-third of the old Beijing city from the city gate of Yongdingmen on the south to the Drum and Bell Towers on the north. This harmonious assemblage of buildings displays the best characteristics of Chinese architecture - majestic style, flawless construction, fine coordination of the whole and its parts. The Palace was turned into a museum in 1925 and contains many historic relics and art objects. It is now one of the 'hottest tourist spots' in China. This bilingual book (Chinese-English) provides a wonderful introduction to this spectacular social and cultural museum.