Our Trip to Beijing Municipality, China

13. Forbidden City Map

One million workers toiled on the palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties from 1421 to 1924. The Forbidden City (Gugong) wall that encompasses its 9,000 rooms consists of 12 million bricks. Another 20 million bricks ended up in the walls of the pavilions and the surfaces of courtyards. The best way to navigate and make some sense of this vast collection of passageways, pavilions is to rent a tape machine as your guide at the entrance. This tape identifies major halls, walls, thrones, furniture, and costumes in the palace.