The Forbidden City has been around since the Qing and Ming Dynasties and was home to 24 different emperors. These rulers carried out their administrative duties here along with living with their families. Its some 720,000 square meters makes it the largest palace in the world. It also contain 9,999 rooms, all of which were beautifully decorated in gold, black, red and many other colors. The main purpose of the complex cannot be over looked, which was to protect the royal family, and it did that very well. From 1420-1940 those 24 emperors lived in peace and security. This was no easy task though to create this monsterous palace. It is said that every 50 meters a well was dug to supply water for the estimated 100,000 workers that brought the stone from Fangshan, suburb of Beijing. They also froze the ground in the winter to help move the stones. Limestone was not the only thing that was brought here though, huge amounts of timber, gold and pigments had to be brought in from the neighboring villages or inland villages of China. it was also mixed with egg whites, rice and a cement mixture to form the cement that secured the bricks together. As odd as this may sound the wall is actually extremely strong and is very smooth to the touch making it hard to climb. There is also a 52-meter-wide, 6-meter-deep moat to accompany the 10-meter-high, 3,400-meter-long city wall and has one gate on each side, making the inner part very secure.

The palace complex is divided into two main court yards, the inner, which is where the royal family lived and had their "private" lives, and the outer, where the emperor would conduct business and also where the guards and everyone else lived. The inner courtyard, until 1924, was only seen by the royal family and their most esteemed guards and friends. This inner court yard housed many priceless valuables and treasures that were passed down threw the generations. The family though was closely watched by guards and if you were not high enough in rank and walked into the wrong room and hallway you could have your hands cut off, whipped, or even killed. (This dragoon to the lower left, is a guardian protecting the main entrance to the inner courtyard)

This great complex has many great colors and statues inside and out. Yellow though is the dominating color because yellow was the symbol of the royal family, from the roofs, bricks on the floor, and of course walls were all painted yellow. But as usual to anything there is one exception, the library. The library was painted black because black was suppose to keep water, books don't like water.