| |
The Forbidden City
×Ļ½ū³Ē
In Chinese and English , German, Japanese£¬korean
By Li Xia and Zhang Quan,
Published in 2000
Page: 97 pages
Size: 250x260mm
Price: US$15+$5 by sea mail
The Forbidden City, which is called the Palace Museum now, occupies the
central part of Beijing municipality and was the imperial palace of Ming
and Qing dynasties. Its construction began in 1406, so it has a history
of nearly 600 years. Over the Years after its completion, 24 emperors
ruled the whole country from here for nearly 500 years.
With many halls and pavilions, marble railings and steps, red walls and
yellow tiles, the Forbidden City looks resplendent and magnificent. It
occupies an area of over 720,000 square meters with 9,000 bays of halls
and rooms, the construction area amounts to about 150,000 square meters
and the surrounding walls are 10 meters high and 3428 meters long with
4 splendid corner towers standing separately at four corners of the city.
A moat, which is 52 meters wide and 3800 meters long, surrounds outside
the walls. Thus the city was made a strongly fortified castle.
In the Forbidden City, there are magnificent rear halls, quiet pathways,
secret places where important matters were discussed and a imperial Garden
for the emperor and his family as well as imposing halls and open squares.
The Forbidden City is divided into two Parts: the outer court and the
inner court. The former is the place where emperors handled court affairs
and held different ceremonies. It consists of Taihe, Zhonghe and Baohe
Halls, and to either sides in front of these halls the Wenhuya Hall and
Wuying Hall are on east and west respectively. The inner court consists
of Qianqing, Jiaotai and Kunning Halls where the emperor lived and handled
day-to-day work. The Imperial Garden lies north of the Kuning Hall where
green pines, exotic flowers and rare stones, pavilions and two-storeyed
houses, ponds and waterside pavilions look like a natural picture.
There are four gates at both east and west side of the three rear halls,
leading to the west and east halls, namely the western six halls are Yongshou
Hall, Taiji Hall, Yikun Hall, Changchun Hall, Chuxiu hall and Xianfu Hall
and the eastern six halls are Jingren Hall, Chenqian Hall, Zhongcui Hall,
Yanxi Hall, Yonghe Hall and Jingyang Hall. Each of these halls has two
courtyards, the front hall being used for the emperor to receive his guests.
Beside the front hall, there are one bedroom and one side hall. The Yangxin
Hall to the south of the western six halls is the place where the emperor
lived and handled his day-to-day work. To the south of the eastern six
halls, there is the fasting hall. Behind the eastern and western six halls,
there are the living quarters of the princes. The Cining Hall and the
Shoukang Hall are to the west of the western six halls, and they are the
places where the queen and concubines of the late emperor lived. To the
east of the eastern six halls, there are the Huangji Hall and Ningshou
Hall where Emperor Qianlong lived after he let his son become the emperor.
The Forbidden City has been well preserved since the founding of the People's
Republic. It is the most magnificent ancient architectural complex we
have in our country, and the biggest and most intact architectural complex
of palaces in the world. The Forbidden City became one of the key units
for preservation of cultural relics in 1961. In 1987, UNESCO in cluded
the Forbidden City in the list of World Heritages. The ancient Forbidden
City has radiated the vigour of its youth and become the cultural heritage
of manking.
The magnificent Forbidden City attracts tremendous amounts of vistors
from home and abroad. Now we have selected 100 photoes here to show you
the best aspects of the city: The majestic and magnificent buildings,
the luxurious scenes of the royal palace and the rich and beautiful relics
and treasures. It is intended to make this book an artistic picture album
for appreciation and keepsake as well as a guidebook and souvenir.
””
|
