The Forbidden City was home to 24 different emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). The original palace was built in the 15th century, but it has been rebuilt many times. The buildings that remain today were mainly built in the 18th century.
The city is symmetrical about its north/south axis and is separated into the outer and inner courts. Emperors held ceremonial audiences in the outer court, consisting of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Medium Harmony and the Hall of Protective Harmony. The inner court, where the empress and concubines lived, is towards the back and includes the Palace of Heavenly Purity and Palace of Earthly Tranquillity. The Palace is said to have 9999 and 1/2 rooms, half a room less than the Imperial Palace in Heaven. In reality, the Palace 'only' has about 9000.
After entering Tiananmen, we arrived at Wumen (Meridian Gate). This is where one purchases entry tickets. We decided to get the 'through' pass (Y50), which included entry to all the attractions inside. We were also offered a headphone tour in which 'Roger Moore's voice will guide you through each of the main halls and attractions'. But we declined. It was just too spooky.
Once inside, we walked over the Golden Water Stream towards the vast Gate of Supreme Harmony. Huge bronze lions guarded the Gate on each side; inside lay the huge courtyard that contained the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Complete Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. We spent a bit of time looking at all three halls before moving on.
We took a right just before the Gate of Heavenly Purity and found ourselves in the Hall of Watches and Clocks. The clocks displayed were of both European and Chinese origin. Amongst them was an authentic Chinese water clock, as well as a number of mechanical clocks. Some were demonstrated while we were there. We continued east until we reached the Nine Dragon Screen. There are many Nine Dragon Screens in China but this was the first we had seen and, by all accounts, quite an important one. We were duly impressed.
We headed north into the eastern part of the Inner Court. Before long, we had to purchase a pair of 'overshoes' (Y2). These one-size-fits-all 'contraptions' were worn over your existing footwear and, presumably, protected the (mainly stone) floors from wear. In the overshoes we saw several palaces and halls including the Hall of Cultivation of Character, which houses a jewellery exhibition, the Hall of Imperial Supremacy, which houses a collection of paintings, and the Qianlong Garden. We ended up in the Imperial Garden, which still kept an aura of peace and tranquillity despite the hordes of lunchtime visitors.
We exited at the Gate of Divine Military Genius. We only spent about 4 hours in the Palace, but you could easily spend the whole day there - there was quite a bit that we didn’t see.