FORBIDDEN CITY (紫禁城) (In front of the meridian gate) Ladies and Gentlemen: I am pleased to serve as your guide This is the palace museum; also know as the Purple Forbidden C It is the largest and most well reserved imperial residence in China Under Ming Emperor Yongle， construction began in It took 14years to build the Forbidden C The first ruler who actually lived here was Ming Emperor Z For five centuries thereafter， it continued to be the residence of23 successive emperors until 1911 when Qing Emperor Puyi was forced to abdicate the In 1987， the United Nations Educational， Scientific and Cultural Organization recognized the Forbidden City was a world cultural It is believed that the Palace Museum， or Zi Jin Cheng (Purple Forbidden City)， got its name from astronomy folklore， The ancient astronomers divided the constellations into groups and centered them around the Ziwei Yuan (North Star) The constellation containing the North Star was called the Constellation of Heavenly God and star itself was called the purple Because the emperor was supposedly the son of the heavenly gods， his central and dominant position would be further highlighted the use of the word purple in the name of his In folklore， the term “an eastern purple cloud is drifting” became a metaphor for auspicious events after a purple cloud was seen drifting eastward immediately before the arrival of an ancient philosopher， LaoZi， to the Hanghu P Here， purple is associated with auspicious The word jin (forbidden) is self-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-explanatory as the imperial palace was heavily guarded and off-limits to ordinary The red and yellow used on the palace walls and roofs are also Red represents happiness， good fortune and Yellow is the color of the earth on the Loess Plateau， the original home of the Chinese Yellow became an imperial color during the Tang dynasty， when only members of the royal family were allowed to wear it and use it in their The Forbidden City is rectangular in It is 960 meters long from north to south and 750 meter wide from east It has 9，900 rooms under a total roof area 150，000 square A 52-meter-wide-moat encircles a 9-meter—high wall which encloses the Octagon —shaped turrets rest on the four corners of the There are four entrances into the city: the Meridian Gate to the south， the Shenwu Gate (Gate of Military Prowess) to the north， and the Xihua Gate (Gate of military Prowess) to the north， and the Xihua Gate (Western Flowery Gate ) to the west， the Donghua (Eastern Flowery Gate) to the Manpower and materials throughout the country were used to build the Forbidden C A total of 230，000 artisans and one million laborers were Marble was quarried from fangshan Country Mount Pan in Jixian County in Hebei P Granite was quarried in Quyang County in Hebei P Paving blocks were fired in kilns in Suzhou in southern C Bricks and scarlet pigmentation used on the palatial walls came from linqing in Shandong P Timber was cut， processed and hauled from the northwestern and southern
