i am pleased to serve as your guide today.
this is the palace museum; also know as the purple forbidden city. it is the largest and most well reserved imperial residence in china today. under ming emperor yongle, construction began in . it took years to build the forbidden city. the first ruler who actually lived here was ming emperor zhudi. for five centuries thereafter, it continued to be the residence of successive emperors until when qing emperor puyi was forced to abdicate the throne .in , the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization recognized the forbidden city was a world cultural legacy.
it is believed that the palace museum, or zi jin cheng (purple forbidden city), got its name from astronomy folklore, the ancient astronomers spanided the constellations into groups and centered them around the ziwei yuan(north star). the constellation containing the north star was called the constellation of heavenly g