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Tour
Forbidden City
 The
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is located in the heart of Beijing. It has
been the focus of authority in imperial China for over 6 centuries.
A city within a city, its high red walls enclosed the centre
of government, the imperial palace. Also enclosed within are
huge lakes dotted with islands and pleasure-boats, workshops
producing clothing, furniture and fittings and luxury items
for the court and a zoo with horses, cats, elephants and, occasionally,
a giraffe. For hundreds of years, thousands of eunuchs served
their imperial masters within the Forbidden City, taking control
of the flow of administrative documents and all the daily needs
of emperors and women of the palace. This lively book introduces
the colourful characters who inhabited the Forbidden City and
vividly evokes the strictly prescribed rituals that made up
life behind its walls. In the 16th and 17th centuries, a tiny
number of foreign envoys, from the Persian Gulf and from Holland,
described the discomforts of waiting for hours in the freezing
cold to catch a glimpse of the Emperor in his yellow silk sedan
chair but it was not until the very end of the 19th century
that westerners managed to penetrate the Forbidden City. This
book allows you to do just that, under the guidance of one of
its most learned and enthusiastic admirers.
 The
Qianlong: A Great Emperor from the Forbidden City
Qianlong, the great 18th century Emperor, ruled China for 60
years, during which time the country became the most wealthy
and populous nation in the world. An open-minded, truthful and
hard working ruler, the Emperor was also a poet, painter and
calligrapher, as well as an art collector and connoisseur.
 The
Forbidden City
The principal residence of China's emperors for nearly five
centuries, Beijing's Forbidden City was long shrouded in mystery,
inaccessible both to common Chinese and to visitors from abroad.
Exploring the palace's grand rituals and detailing the processes
of its everyday life, this illustrated introduction extends
the reach of the tourists guidebooks to provide a detailed picture
of the private world hidden behind imperial walls.
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To Tour Beijing
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