Forbidden City

 Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is a palacecomplex in central Beijing, China. The former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (the years 1420 to 1912), it now houses the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years.

Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildingsand covers 72 hectares (over 180 acres). The palace exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artifacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum's former collection is now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War. Since 2012, the Forbidden City has seen an average of 15 million visitors annually, and received more than 16 million visitors in 2016 and 2017.

Established	1925
Location	4 Jingshan Front St, Dongcheng, Beijing, China
Coordinates	39.915987°N 116.397925°ECoordinates: 39.915987°N 116.397925°E
Type	Art museum, Imperial Palace, Historic site
Visitors	16.7 million[1] Ranking 1st globally
Curator	Shan Jixiang (单霁翔)
Built	1406–1420
Architect	Kuai Xiang
Architectural style(s)	Chinese architecture
Website	en.dpm.org.cn (English language version) www.dpm.org.cn (Chinese language version)
UNESCO World Heritage site
Part of	Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang
Criteria	Cultural: i, ii, iii, iv
Reference	439-001
Inscription	1987 (11th Session)