Constructed on the site of a palace dating to Kublai Khan and the Mongol Yuan dynasty, the Ming emperor Yongle established the basic layout of the Forbidden City between 1406 and 1420. The grandiose battalions of laborers and crafts workers – by some estimates there may have been up to a million of them – to build it. The palace lay at the heart of the Imperial City, a much larger, walled enclosure reserved for the use of the emperor and ... Read More

The magnificent Forbidden City, so called because it was off limits to commoners for 500 years, occupies a primary position in the Chinese psyche. To the Han Chinese, the Forbidden City is a contradictory symbol. It’s a politically incorrect yarn from a pre-Revolutionary dark age, but it’s also one spun from the very pinnacle of Chinese civilization. It’s not therefore surprising that more violent forces during the Cultural Revolution wanted to trash the place. This gargantuan palace complex – China’s largest and ... Read More

  The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Tiananmen Square, Beijing - China DOWNLOAD HERE The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China   ... Read More