The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace) is the most biggest and well preserved classical royal palace complex in the world, it is the representation of the highest level of the ancient architecture.

The Imperial Palace was first build by the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and in Ming dynasty, Emperor Yongle ordered to enlarge to its present day size which started in 1406 and finished 1420.

The purple-red coloring of the main color of Imperial Palace the heavenly equivalent of the emperor. And the roof with yellow-glazed tiles of which in the respect that yellow is a color restricted to the emperor, embodies his representation of Earth in the face of Heaven.

Rectangular in shape, the Forbidden City covers 74 hectares and surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 buildings. The wall has a gate on each side. The distance between the opposite sides of the two gates the Tiananmen Gate and its north the Devine Might Gate is 960 meters. while the distance between the gates in the east and west walls is 750 meters. Today the palace can be entered by visitors from two different gates: the Meridian Gate in the south which line went through the Forbidden City and also forms the main entrance, Chinese emperors believed that they lived in the center of the universe. And in the north through the Gate of Spiritual Valour (Shenwu Men). There are also in the east the Flowering Gate of the East (Donghua Men), and in the west the Flowering Gate of the West (Xihua Men).

The palace is divided into two main sections:- the Front Palace and the Inner palace. In the center of the Front Palace stand the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Complete Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony, this is the southern section namely the Outer Court was ever once where the emperor exercised his supreme power. The Inner Palace includes the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Prosperity, the Hall of Earthly Peace and the Imperial Garden, the northern section, or the Inner Court was where he and his royal family lived. Until 1924 when the last emperor of China Puyi was driven away from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, it keeps numerous rare treasures and curiosities.

The hall of Supreme Harmony is 35 meter high, 60 meter wide and 33 meter on both sides. A pair of bronze lions guards the Gate of Supreme Harmony, symbolizing the imperial power. Lions suggests the good doorkeepers and put at the gate to ward off evil spirits. It was considered auspicious. The hall of Supreme Harmony is now the largest, best preserved wooden hall in China. Twenty-four pillars support the roof. The Central six are gilded and painted red. The Emperor throne is in the middle of the hall, which is surrounded by art treasures of symbolic significance. Above the throne is gold painted caisson, or coffer ceiling, with dragon designs, from which hangs a spherical pearl called The Xu Anyuan mirror.

Three flights of marble steps leads up to the terrace, In the middle of the central flight is a huge carving in the design of Dragons playing with pearls over which the emperors sedan chairs were carried. At the east corner of the terrace is a sundial, the west corner stands a small temple in which the grain measure was kept. The sundial and grain measure are the meanings of rectitude and fairness.

Behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony, between the stairways, is a huge one-piece marble carving of Dragons playing with pearls. This marble was brought here all the way from Fang Shan District, about 90 km away from the center of Beijing. It is about 17 meters long, 3 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick, weighing about 250 tons. It was said that a well was dug every fifty meters along the road so that they can pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice to the city. Great deal of timber and other materials were transfered from faraway provinces. The foundation is of stone and the roofs of yellow glazed tiles. These incredible materials make the wall extraordinarily strong.

Facing the Gate of Imperial Supremacy in the Hall of Jewelry is the famous Nine Dragon Screen, the best of its kind and the biggest in China. The main body of the screen was engraved with nine huge dragons. Each dragon with its unique appearance is playing with a jewelry ball. The dragons were painted with different colors with three dimension visual appearance and were handcrafted with highest technique of workmanship.

Forbidden City serves as the residence and office of the Imperial family and their household staffs, as well as the offices of the ministers and favored officials. The whole complex has 9999 rooms capable of housing the imperial family, administrators, eunuchs, maids and soldiers. The population numbered some 9000 women and 100,000 eunuchs at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and 300 plus women and 2000 odd eunuchs in the Qing Dynasty. Some concubines even never seen the emperor from they were selected to enter the court to serve for the emperor at the age of 14 till their death. The fights between ministers and officials sometimes are far less crueler than the open strife and veiled struggles among the empress and the thousands of concubines. The princes vie to the succession over the king can be shown in the film which much more devious and twisted than Hamlet. The Imperial Palace was listed as a world cultural heritage site in 1987.