UNESCO World Heritage SiteNational 5A Scenic AreaNorth China
The Forbidden City
故宫博物院 · Beijing, Beijing
The world's largest preserved imperial palace complex, home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Forbidden City, officially the Palace Museum, sits at the heart of Beijing and covers 72 hectares with more than 980 surviving wooden buildings. It was the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government for almost 500 years. Today it ranks among the most-visited museums in the world, holding nearly two million artefacts.
Construction began in 1406 under the Yongle Emperor and was completed in 1420, when the Ming capital moved from Nanjing to Beijing. Twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties lived and ruled here until 1912. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987 as the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
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