What if I can't buy tickets for the Forbidden City?

You can go to the on-site window to buy it when it is sold out online. The North of the Forbidden City in Beijing is the Long Live Mountain and the South is the Jinshui River, which is just in line with the ancients' principle of "negative yin holding yang, rushing to be harmonious". Long live the Mountain is a man-made mountain specially built to create the geomantic omen of the imperial city. Built in the early Ming Dynasty, it is located in the former site of Yanchunge, the bedroom of the Yuan Dynasty, and is made up of silt from the moat and Nanhu Lake.

The piling of this mountain, on the one hand, satisfies the principle that the imperial city should be "negative", on the other hand, it suppresses the geomantic omen of the previous dynasty, so Long live the Mountain is also called "Zhenshan". The layout of Beijing 49 City is that Erlong comes out of the water to protect the Forbidden City. According to China's ancient astrology theory, the purple star (i.e. Polaris) is located in the center of the sky, where the emperor lived, corresponding to heaven and man. According to the emperor's residence, it is also called the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is about 960 meters long from north to south, 750 meters wide from east to west, with an area of more than 720,000 square meters and more than 8,000 existing houses. There are 10 meters high walls and 52 meters wide moats around. There are doors on all sides, the meridian gate in the south, the Shenwu gate in the north, the Donghua gate in the east and the Xihua gate in the west. The Forbidden City consists of an outer court and an inner court.

Construction principle

The Forbidden City was built in strict accordance with the principle of "the former dynasty was in the city, and the left ancestor was in the right society" in Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji. The whole Forbidden City, in terms of architectural layout, is combined into a whole through the changes and ups and downs of its shape, which conforms to the hierarchical system of feudal society in function. At the same time, it achieves the artistic effect of balance and body change.

The roof forms of buildings in China are rich and colorful. In the Forbidden City, there are 10 different kinds of roofs. Take the three pavilions as an example. The roof is different. The roofs of buildings in the Forbidden City are covered with glazed tiles of various colors. The main temple is mainly yellow. The buildings in the prince's residential area use green.

Other colorful stained glass, such as blue, purple, black, emerald, malachite green, sapphire blue, etc., are mostly used in gardens or glass walls. There are glazed kissing animals at both ends of the main ridge on the roof of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and the swallowing ridge is steady and powerful. Kissing animals have beautiful shapes, which are both components and decorations. Some ceramic tiles create three-dimensional animal images such as dragons and phoenixes, lions and seahorses, symbolizing auspiciousness and majesty. These components play a decorative role in the building.