| The
Palace Museum, historically and artistically one of the most comprehensive
in China, was established on the foundation of a palace of two dynasties,
the Ming and the Qing, and their collection of treasures. It is also
known as the Forbidden City. Designated by the
State Council as being among China's foremost protected monuments in 1961,
the Palace Museum was also named as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. |
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| Situated
at the heart of Beijing, the Palace Museum is approached through Tiananmen;
immediately behind it is Prospect Hill, while on the east and west are
Wangfujing and Zhongnanhai. It is a location endowed with cosmic
significance by ancient China's astronomers. Correlating the emperor's
abode, which they considered the pivot of the terrestrial world, with the
Pole Star (Ziweiyuan), which they believed to be at the centre of the
heavens, they called the palace Zijincheng. |
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Zijincheng was built in 1420 by the third Ming emperor Yongle who, upon
usurping the throne, had decided to move his capital north to Beijing. In
1911 the last feudal dynasty, the Qing, fell to the republican
revolutionaries. The last emperor, Puyi, continued to live in the palace
after his abdication until expelled in 1924. Twenty-four emperors lived and
ruled from this palace during this 500-year span.
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