April 1998
The Forbidden City
Only foreigners call the Palace Museum the "Forbidden City". To the Chinese it is the "Palace Museum" in their last emperor's imperial residence. For me, that palace complex might be the most imposing I ever visited.
The Forbidden City was constructed from 1406 to 1420, and was the former Chinese imperial palace and winter residence of the Emperor of China from the Ming dynasty (since the Yongle Emperor) to the end of the Qing dynasty, between 1420 and 1924. The Forbidden City served as the home of Chinese emperors and their households and was the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government for over 500 years
...
The complex consists of 980 buildings, encompassing 9,999 rooms and covering 720,000 m2 /178 acres. The palace exemplifies the opulence of the residences of the Chinese emperor and the traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. It is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Since 2012, the Forbidden City has seen an average of 14 million visitors annually, and received more than 19 million visitors in 2019. In 2018, the Forbidden City's market value was estimated at 70 billion USD, making it both the world's most valuable palace and the most valuable piece of real estate anywhere in the world.
(Wikipedia)
I visited on three occasions and was awe-struck every single time. Of course, the first visit was the most impressive. Tiananmen Square in front of the main gate (with its iconic picture of Mao) can reportedly hold a crowd of a million people. I could believe it as it just swallows up visitors on their way to the main entry. In the past, only the emperor could pass through the main door to the complex - these days, it is the only door that is open in a show to the Chinese people that the palace and its history are now THEIRS.
Visitors enter into a vast courtyard with a complex of buildings at the center. Impressive, it is meant to strike awe into the visitor. People are drawn to the elaborate staircase of the central building where, after ascending, they enter via a huge doorway into another large courtyard - smaller, but still impressive. In that courtyard exists one more set of even more elaborately carved stairs. Those lead to yet a final doorway which opens onto the last courtyard and the heart of the old palace. I can only imagine how visiting dignitaries of the past slowly and ominously realized the absolute power of the head of state they were coming to see as they progressed toward the heart of the palace.
Behind the palace complex is Jingshan Park.
Jingshan's history dates to the Liao and Jin dynasties, almost a thousand years ago. The 45.7-meter (150 ft) high artificial hill was constructed in the Yongle era of the Ming dynasty entirely from the soil excavated in forming the moats of the Imperial Palace and nearby canals. All of this material was moved by manual labor and animal power.
(Wikipedia)
So massive is the imperial palace that a literal mountain of dirt was created (and turned into a park) behind the complex. Nothing about the palace museum, not even its excavated soil, fails to impress.
Ironically, the Palace Museum of Beijing is somewhat empty. Some might think it is due to Communist austerity, but, in fact, when the Nationalist forces were in retreat from the Communists, they emptied the palace of all its treasures. They were carefully carted along during the journey and now all reside in the fabulous National Museum of Taiwan. China might want reunification with Taiwan just to get the Forbidden City's treasures back. During the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution" many of those treasures might have been destroyed or melted down, so it was a stroke of luck that the retreating Nationalists preserved them.
No comparison exists between the old palace of Beijing and any other on earth. Louis IV and the Habsburgs [see: Hofburg Palace] made impressive structures but nothing on the scale of the last palace of the Chinese emperors. One must go back in time to Ramses II's Luxor or Darius I's Persepolis to fully understand the magnitude of the ultimate palace of China. Absolute power in one of the richest nations on earth yielded amazing results. My only thought upon viewing it each time was "everyone underestimates China".
For anyone doubting Chinese power (and the Chinese take the long view in history as well as future planning), one trip to the Palace Museum should serve as a huge reality check. China, more than any other country on the planet, is a force to be reckoned with. If in doubt, just visit the "Palace Museum" in Beijing (it's free).
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