While standing at the stony floor of the marvelous Forbidden Palace, it is very inspiring to recall that once these stones, these walls; these marble tiled white courtyards, these tall yellow roofs, remained hidden from the eyes of the non-royal, the commons, for hundreds of years. It is both mesmerizing and strange feeling to think of the untold stories the palace has absorbed in it. The raise and the falls it has seen and the labor, the blood and sweat in its foundations. It is the Forbidden City (Forbidden Palace Museum) of Beijing China, a mystifying wonder.

Situated at the center of Beijing, north of Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today, since the Place has been opened for the public, it is known as the Palace Museum, called “Gu Gong” in Chinese. It provides an incomparable experience of visiting the Royal residence, once a mystery, today a museum. Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven 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 houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987, the Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions world-wide. The Place exhibits a one of its kind collection of clocks, as the emperor was very fond of them and the royal watch maker left no stone unturned in making some of the state of the art models of watches still a marvel of simplest technology. The Palace had been a quest, a target a goal, a greed for many. During the World War, the treasure of the Palace however was secured by carefully listing it, dividing it in parts and scattering it in the far away cities of China.

The Forbidden city or Palace, is actually a group of residences. Rectangular in shape, it is the world’s largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. The palace is surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 rooms. The wall has a gate on each side. Opposite the Tiananmen Gate, to the north is the Gate of Divine Might (Shenwumen), which faces Jingshan Park. The distance between these two gates is 960 meters, while the distance between the gates in the east and west walls is 750 meters. It needs a whole day and comfortable foot wear with a bottle of water and a camera, to take a walk through the palace and get amazed by the splendor of the Royals. There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall. These afford views over both the palace and the city outside. As yellow is the symbol of the royal family in China, it is the dominant color in the Forbidden City. All roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations in the palace are painted yellow mostly golden with Gold fillings and thin files collected from throughout the continent, even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process. Except for the Wenyuange, the royal library, that has a black roof. The reason is that it was believed black represented water then and could extinguish fire.

By dint of its superb design, unique pattern and splendid painted decoration on these royal architectural wonders, the grand and deluxe halls, with their surprisingly magnificent treasures, The Forbidden City is treat to watch. Also Beijing is not an expensive destination. Daily flights to Beijing are available with British airways and air China at cheap prices. For more details about ongoing offers for Beijing flight see Cheap flights to China.