The Forbidden City

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The Forbidden City, 72 hectres, world's biggest surviving palace, houses 1.5 million artifacts. It was the imperial palace from mid-Ming dynasty to the end of Qing dynasty and it was home to 24 emperors (14 from Ming dynasty & 10 from Qing dynasty) & the last emperor was Puyi.

It was constructed in 1406 during Yongle's (Zhu Di , son of Hongwu emperor - 3rd emperor of Ming dynasty) reign & the construction lasted 15 years. It was strike by lightning twice & the Main Hall was burnt to the ground.

One cant help but to admire such a beautiful architecture & be amazed the way it was built without using a single nail. The method was rather simple, dugong - an inter-locking brakets method that hold on to each other with precision !

This place is so huge, cant finish in one day ! Eventhough I was there from 10am - 4pm, I only managed to cover half section (that also very rush)....

For more details , go to : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City

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