| A bird's-eye-vies of the Forbidden City. |
 | The Forbidden City of Beijing was the power center of China's last two feudal dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, which ruled China for altogether 491 years, from 1421 to 1911. All in all, 13 Ming emperors and 11 Qing emperors were housed in the Forbidden City, the largest and the best-preserved palace complex in China and the world. And as such, it represents the highest achievements ancient China was able to make in architectural engineering and art.
Farm back in 1045 BC, the City of Yan was built in what is now Beijing. In 1153 AD, the Jin Dynasty, a political regime set up by an ethnic minority group that ruled parts of north China, made the City of Yan its capital and gave it the new name "Zhong Du" - the "central
capital". This marked the beginning for Beijing to serve as capital of political regimes, either local or national. It was on the basis of the "central capital" that in the 13th century, the founding emperors of the Yuan Dynasty started developing Beijing as the national capital, which they chose to call "Da Du" - the "great capital". |
