The Forbidden City: 600 Years of Emperors No One Could See

Stop and look up. What you see in front of you is the Meridian Gate — the southern entrance, the largest gate of the Forbidden City. Built in 1420, it stands 37 meters high. It has five arches. Sounds simple. But those five arches came with strict rules. The central arch, the biggest one, was reserved for a single person: the Emperor. Two exceptions existed. The Empress could cross it once — on her wedding day. And the top three scholars of the imperial civil service exam, held every three years, could also pass through it once. That was it. Everyone else, regardless of rank, used the sid…

The space you're standing in is the plaza of the Gate of Supreme Harmony. Over thirty thousand square meters of paving stone. By protocol, before the Emperor appeared, everyone had to kneel and keep their eyes down. Picture the scene: hundreds of officials prostrated on the ground, motionless, waiting for someone they had never really seen. The design logic is brilliant. Everything was built to make the Emperor seem not like a man but like a natural force. In 1406, Emperor Yongle gave the order to build. He was a usurper: he took power by overthrowing his own nephew. For that reason, more …

This is the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The largest surviving wooden structure in China. Thirty meters high, 65 meters wide, 37 meters deep. It sits on a three-tiered marble platform that alone stands eight meters tall. What you're looking at was rebuilt between 1695 and 1697 — because this building burned down seven times. Each time, it was rebuilt exactly as before. Inside, at the center, stands the Dragon Throne. The Emperor only used it on three occasions: his enthronement, his wedding, and New Year celebrations. The rest of the time, this hall stood empty. There's a little-known detail: …

The Hall of Central Harmony is surprisingly small. It's right behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony, on the same central axis. But it wasn't built to impress. It was built to prepare. Before the Emperor appeared in the Great Hall, he came here. He changed robes. He rested. The masters of ceremony gave him his final instructions. It was the dressing room of the god-emperor. The world's largest palace was also the world's largest stage. And like every stage, it had a backstage. The Emperor didn't improvise. Every gesture, every step, every intonation was coded by protocols that had been running…

The Hall of Preserving Harmony has the most dramatic function in the entire complex. During the Ming dynasty, it hosted imperial banquets. But during the Qing dynasty, it became the most important examination room in all of China: the Palace Examination. Every three years, the country's top scholars, after passing elimination rounds in the provinces and the capital, came here for the final exam, presided over by the Emperor himself. The top three — the Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, and Tanhua — earned the privilege of leaving the Forbidden City through the central arch of the Meridian Gate. The only…

We're now in the Inner Court: the private section of the palace. This wasn't open to the public — not even to most officials. This is where the Emperor actually lived and worked. The Hall of Mental Cultivation isn't the most imposing, but it was the most used. From Emperor Yongzheng onward, all Qing emperors lived and governed from here. In 1861, Emperor Xianfeng died. His son Tongzhi was six years old. Real power passed to his mother: Empress Dowager Cixi. How did she manage it? In this hall, in the Eastern Warmth Chamber, she sat behind a silk screen. Ministers entered, prostrated themse…

The Palace of Heavenly Purity is the largest of the three palaces in the Inner Court. "Heavenly Purity" isn't a decorative name. It describes the Emperor's role in the cosmos: the clear sky that connects Heaven and Earth. During the Ming dynasty, the Emperor lived here. The building had two floors and 27 beds. Each night, he slept in a different bed, chosen without telling anyone in advance. The reason: to avoid assassins. Above the main door hangs an inscription: "Zheng Da Guang Ming" — "Honest, upright, and magnanimous." But that inscription hides a secret. Emperor Yongzheng established …

This area is the Six Eastern Palaces: six interconnected groups of buildings. On the other side are their mirror images, the Six Western Palaces. Together they form the core of the imperial harem. The women who lived here arrived through a strict selection process. Concubines, ladies-in-waiting, servants — all confined to this closed world. Once they entered, they practically never left. Eunuchs were the key piece of the system. The only men who could move freely through the Inner Court were the Emperor and the eunuchs. At its peak, the Forbidden City had more than 70,000 eunuchs. Without …

This is the Imperial Garden: the only truly "natural" space in the entire Forbidden City. About ten thousand square meters with over a thousand elements: pavilions, decorative rocks, centuries-old trees. Some of the cypress trees in this garden have been growing in the same spot for more than 500 years. What did this garden mean to the people who lived in the palace? For the Emperor, it was the only place he could "go outside." For the women of the harem, it was the only place where they could see open sky and feel the wind. For someone who never left the walls, this garden was all of natu…

This is the Gate of Divine Might: the northern exit of the Forbidden City. On November 5th, 1924, soldiers of warlord Feng Yuxiang surrounded the palace. They gave Puyi three hours to leave. Puyi was eighteen years old. He had lived in this palace since age two. He crossed this gate, passed over the moat, and never came back. Palace gates never expected an Emperor to leave through them fleeing. They only expected him to return. Puyi wrote later that when he crossed that threshold, he felt for the first time something like freedom — though mixed with a fear he didn't know how to name. He di…