The Forbidden City, so called because it was off limits for 500 years, is the largest and best-preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. It was home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing, who didn't leave this pleasure-dome unless they absolutely had to. The basic layout of the city was established between 1406 and 1420 by Emperor Yong Le, commanding battalions of laborers and craftspeople - some estimate up to a million of them. From this palace the emperors governed China, often rather erratically as they tended to become lost in this self-contained little world and allocate real power to the court eunuchs.

The palace was built on a monumental scale, with 800 buildings and 9000 rooms, on 720,000 square meters. It was constantly going up in flames - lantern festivals combined with heavy winds from the Gobi desert would usually do the trick - as well as firewoks displays. It was not just the buildings that would go up in flames, but also rare books, paintings, and calligraphy. These fires, combined with major lootings by the Japanese and the Kuomintang, resulted in a major depletion of it's treasures. The gaps have been filled by bringing in artwork, old and newly remanufactured, from other parts of China.

©Erwin Bakx 1997