The
Forbidden City was built in 1406 by the first Ming Emperor of China, Yongle and
served as the Imperial Palace for the emperor.
For almost 500 years the magnificent palace housed 24 emperors from the
Ming dynasty (Bulliet 330). According to
Zhigang, the palace is called the Forbidden City because no civilians were
allowed into the gates after the building of the structure was complete. I think the Forbidden City was a symbol to the
Chinese civilians that the Ming emperors valued their privacy and wanted to
remind their empire of their elite power.
http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/pictures-of-china/?level=picture&id=1608
http://www.terrafirmatourist.com/empire-of-the-great-ming-%E2%80%93-chinese-culture-and-tradition/
Bulliet, Richard W. The Earth and Its Peoples. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. Print.