The Forbidden City 紫禁城

The Forbidden City is located at the center of the city of Beijing. First built in 1406 and completed in 1420, the city served as the royal palace in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, 24 emperors lived here. Apart from（远离，且不说） the Hall of Supreme¹ Harmony, the Hall of Complete Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, and the East and West Inner Palaces, tourists can also pay a visit to the Exhibition Hall of Historical Relics², the Hall of Treasure, the Hall of Paintings, the Hall of Arts and Crafts, the Hall of Ceramics³（制陶术） the Hall of Bronze Ware⁴, and the Hall of Clocks.

Forbidden City , The Gugong, or Imperial Palace, is much better known by its unofficial title, the Forbidden City, a reference to its exclusivity（排外性） . Indeed, for the five centuries of its operation, through the reigns⁵ of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, ordinary Chinese were forbidden from even approaching the walls of the palace.

Today the complex is open to visitors daily 8:30am–4:30pm, with last admission at 3:30pm (￥55, students ￥20). You have the freedom of most of the hundred-hectare（公顷） site, though not all of the buildings, which are labelled in English. If you want detailed⁶ explanation of everything you see, you can tag on to one of the numerous tour groups or buy one of the many specialist books on sale. The audio tour (￥25), available by the south gate, is also worth considering. You're provided with a cassette player（卡式录音机） and headphones and suavely⁷（温文尔雅地，柔和地） talked through the complex by Roger Moore – though if you do this, it's worth retracing⁸ your steps afterwards for an untutored（粗野的，天真的） view. Useful bus routes serving the Forbidden City are #5 from Qianmen, and #54 from Beijing Zhan, or you could use #1, which passes the complex on its journey along Chang'an Jie.