The Forbidden City or Forbidden Palace ( 紫禁城 ) , located at the exact center of the ancient city of Beijing, was the imperial palace during the mid-Ming and the Qing dynasties. Known now as the Palace Museum ( 故宫博物院 ) , its extensive grounds cover 720,000 square meters, 800 buildings and 9,999 rooms. As such, it is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world, and was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 as the " Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties". The imperial palace grounds are located directly to the north of Tiananmen Square ( 天安门广场 ) and are accessible from the square via Tiananmen Gate. It is surrounded by a large area called the Imperial City .

Although no longer occupied by royalty, the Forbidden City remains a symbol of Chinese sovereignty and the image of its entrance gate appears on the seal of the People's Republic of China . The Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Recently, the site has been under much renovation which has limited visitors to the main courtyards and a few gardens.

The construction of the Forbidden City started in 1406 and took 14 years and an estimated 200,000 men. From its completion in 1422 to 1644, when a peasant revolt invaded it, the Forbidden City served as the seat of the Ming Dynasty ( 明朝 ) . The following Qing Dynasty ( 清朝 ) also occupied the Forbidden City. After being the home of 24 emperors—fourteen of the Ming dynasty and ten of the Qing—the Forbidden City ceased being the political center of China in 1912 with the abdication of Pu Yi ( 溥仪 ) , the last Emperor of China. He was, however, allowed and in fact required to live within the walls of the Forbidden City , until a coup launched by a local warlord in 1924. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, it houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. In 1947, after they had been moved from one location to another inside mainland China for many years, Chiang Kai-shek ( 蒋介石 ) ordered many of the artifacts within the Forbidden City to be moved to Taiwan ( 台湾 ) where they formed the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

The imperial throne inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity ( 乾清宫 ), the place of day-to-day government and imperial audiences

Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 720,000 square meters. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are five halls, seventeen palaces, and numerous other buildings, the Forbidden Palace is reputed to have a total of 9,999.5 rooms. The wall has a gate on each side. At the southern end is the Meridian Gate ( 午门 ) , to the north is the Gate of Divine Might, which faces Jingshan ( 景山 ) Park. The distance between these two gates is 960 meters, while the distance between the gates in the east and west walls is 750 meters.

There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall. These afford views over both the palace and the city outside. The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The southern section, or the Outer Court , consists of five halls used for ceremonial purposes. These include the magnificant Hall of Supreme Harmony ( 太和殿 ), itself fronted by the Gate of Supreme Harmony ( 太和门 ). The northern section, or the Inner Court , was where the Emperor worked and lived with his family, eunuchs and maid-servants.

At the northern end of the Forbidden City there is a small park. It is home to some relatively old trees, most between 100 and 300 years of age.

Since the 1949 revolution, Tiananmen Gate in front of the Forbidden City has had a picture of Mao Zedong ( 毛泽东 ) and two placards. The left one reads 中华人民共和国万岁 ("Long Live the People's Republic of China"), while the right placard reads 世界人民大团结万岁 ("Long live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples").

Major buildings include:

• Meridian Gate ( 午门 )
• Tiananmen Gate ( 天安门 )
• Gate of Supreme Harmony ( 太和门 )
• Hall of Supreme Harmony ( 太和殿 )
• Hall of Heavenly Purity ( 乾清宫 )