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Architecture of Forbidden City

Introduction | Virtual tour | Architecture | Construction | Present condition | Treasure

Discover the architecture of Forbidden City
Forbidden City is rectangular in shape, 960 meters long from north to south and 750 meters wide from east to west. There are gates on each sidewall. It covers an area of 72 hectares and the total floor space is about 150,000 square meters. Forbidden City is enclosed by a moat of 52 meters wide and a city wall ten meters high. At each corner of the wall there is a magnificent watchtower. It is said that there are total 9,999 and a half buildings.

Ancient Chinese people displayed their very considerable skills in building the Forbidden City. Take the grand red city wall for example. It has an 8.6 meters wide base reducing to 6.66 meters wide at the top. The angular shape of the wall totally frustrates attempts to climb it. The bricks were made from white lime and glutinous rice while the cement is made from glutinous rice and egg whites. These incredible materials make the wall extraordinarily strong. Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in the Forbidden City. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations in the palace are painted yellow; even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process. However, there is one exception. Wenyuange, the royal library, has a black roof. The reason is that it was believed black represented water and could extinguish fire.