Forbidden City, Beijing

The Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, was the imperial residence of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasties. The complex has 70 structures and more than 9000 rooms. It is surrounded by a 10-meter (33-foot) high wall dotted with elaborate watchtowers and encircled by a moat. Turned into a museum in the early 20th Century, it houses an extensive collection of fine treasures. The Nationalist Party took a large number of these treasures to Taiwan in 1949 but 900,000 priceless relics remain. Behind the palace is a delightful royal garden that is surprisingly quiet in contrast to the throngs of international visitors at Tiananmen Gate, the museum's official entrance. The Palace Museum that is commonly known as the Forbidden City is actually the inner core of the warren of buildings and alleys, no longer standing, that made up the imperial Forbidden City that would have take up all the land now enclosed by the First Ring Road. Within the wall of the museum China's dynastic world was centered. The outer buildings, now torn down, literally housed a city, its inhabitants' occupations made up exclusively by means to serve the emperor and the extensive royal family, including gold and silver smiths, butchers, seamstresses and imperial manufacturers. It is said that the design of the watchtowers that surround the outer walls of the moat were inspired by grasshopper cages. Do you see a resemblance?