The Forbidden City Travel Diary

  • KYAW NYEIN
  • Published: 2024-03-02
  • 6646


Kyaw Nyein visiting the Forbidden City

We visited The Forbidden City for the China Panorama course with Professor Cao. At that time, I had an amazing feeling about Chinese history, Chinese traditional cultures, architecture, and so on.  The Forbidden City is one place to visit. which was made to be the Chinese imperial palace and the winter residence during the Ming dynasty. It was built between 1406-1420 and lasted from the Ming dynasty to the collapse of the weak Qing Dynasty in 1924. In ancient China, it was called the Forbidden City (Chinese: 紫禁城; Literal translation: ‘Purple Forbidden City’). Translation, Purple Forbidden City, but the forbidden city is all yellow and red, so why use the ‘Purple’? As Professor Cao introduced that it comes from Polaris. In ancient China, Polaris was called Purple Star, it was in the center of the sky. It represented that the Emperor was arranged by the gods to manage the people, and demonstrated the legitimacy of the Emperor’s status. So, it uses the ‘Purple’. Tradition says that its design famously incorporates 9,999.5 rooms. Only the celestial Lord of Heaven, not his imperial son on Earth, could enjoy 10,000. Nonetheless, the number 9,999 is auspicious in Chinese culture, associated with the emperor, and pronounced the same as the Chinese word “eternal.” So I would like to Thank to Professor Cao (China panorama course) to give us such nice course and trip.

 

 

Author: KYAW NYEIN

Editor: GAO Yuan