Beijing`s FORBIDDEN CITY is imperial splendour at its best. The entire area is remarkable and there is so much to see that it takes at least 3 hours of walking to get to the most important spots. The official name of the place is Palace Museum (Gugong) - that`s because China`s red leaders
are not so fond of the word `Imperial` and the Gugong was the palace of China`s emperors for about 600 years. The most popular name is still Forbidden City, referring to the fact that the palace grounds were off-limits to
citizens. Only the emperor`s relatives, the concubines and high-ranking officers (mandarins) could gain entry. Everyone else paid with their heads if they entered - now paying about 60 yuan will also do.
Just a few numbers: the Forbidden City extends 760 m east to west and 960 m north to south. The walls are 10 m high and the overall area of the palace is 72 hectares. The buildings have altogether 9999.5 rooms (.5 stands for a room that`s much smaller than all the others). Why is that? In ancient China it was believed that the Jade Emperor (who resided in the Heavens) had 10000 rooms. The emperor of the country was held the son of the heavenly emperor therefore he was not supposed to have more rooms than his heavenly father. Even inside the Forbidden City buildings are of different rank. The highest of all is the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Tai he Dian) from where the Middle Kingdom was governed. Besides other indicators (eg. size) the most effective way to find out about the rank of a certain building is to count the number of small animal figures on their roofs. The more figures there are, the more important the building is. The figures also had another function: they were to keep bad spirits away because Chinese believed that bad spirits usually come from above. On the pic below you can see six figures (Tai He Dian has 11). Also note the yellow colour - whenever a building`s roof has this colour it means that the place once belonged to the emperor.