This is the Palace Museum, also known as the Purple Forbidden City. It is the largest and most well reserved imperial residence in China today. Under Ming Emperor , construction began in 1406. It took 14 years to build the Forbidden City.

The red and yellow used on the palace walls and roofs are also symbolic. Red represents happiness, good fortune and wealth. Yellow is the color of the earth on the Loess Plateau, the original home of the Chinese people. 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 architecture.

The Forbidden City is rectangular in shape. It is 960 meters long from north to south and 750 meters wide from east west. It has 9900 rooms under a total roof area 150000 square meters. A 52-meter-wide-moat encircles a 9.9 –meter- high wall which encloses the complex.

It is believed that the Palace Museum got its name from astronomy folklore. The ancient astronomers divided the constellations into groups and centered them around the Ziwei Yuan. The constellation containing the North Star was called the Constellation of Heavenly God and star itself was called the purple palace.

The Forbidden City is divided into an outer and an inner count. We are now standing on the southernmost part of the outer count. In front of us lies the Gate of supreme Harmony. The gate is guarded by a pair of bronze lions, symbolizing imperial power and dignity. The lions were the most exquisite and biggest of its kind. The one on the east playing with a ball is a male, and ball is said to represent state unity. The other one is a female. Underneath one of its fore claws is a cub that is considered to be a symbol of perpetual imperial succession.

The Forbidden City consists of an outer count and an inner enclosure. The outer count yard covers a vast space lying between the Meridian Gate and the Gate of Heavenly Purity. The “three big halls” of Supreme Harmony, Complete Harmony and Preserving Harmony constitute the center of this building group. The great three halls are built on a spacious “H”-shaped,8-meter-high, triple marble terrace. Each level of the triple terrace is taller than the on below and all are encircled by marble balustrades carved with dragon and phoenix designs.

This area is called the Hall of Supreme Harmony Square, which covers a total of 30000 square meters. Without a single tree or plant growing here, this place inspires visitors to feel its solemnity and grandeur. In the middle of the square there is carriageway that was reserved for the Emperor. On both sides of the road the ground bricks were laid in a special way seven layers lengthwise and eight layers crosswise,making up fifteen layers in all.

这是我以前做的PowerPoint，可能不太连贯，见谅！