The third Ming emperor YongLe returned the capital to Beijing (from Nanjing) and in 1406 he began construction of a new and extremely grand imperial palace complex. The building work took 14 years to complete - and an estimated one million workers, including 100,000 artisans, were involved.

The Forbidden City gets its name from the fact that ordinary citizens were excluded from the complex. It is surrounded by a six meter deep, 52 meter wide moat. Inside the moat, the outer wall is 10 meters high and 3,400 meters long. The enormity of the complex, with the emperor hidden inside, added to the imperial mystique and air of legitemacy. Read the rest of this entry »

The Great Wall of China is a legendary masterwork of human achievement. The history of the Great Wall of China is a long one, tracing back to the early days of the Spring and Autumn Period in China, as far back as the 8th Century BC. It was in this time that the Chinese first started using wall building technology to protect countries and fields from invading barbarians.

However, the first vestiges of the Great Wall of China that still exist today were not begun until 221 BC, under the rule of Qin Shi Huang. The Warring States Period, a long stretch of nearly two centuries in which numerous warlords attempted to retain or seize further control of land in China, resulted in numerous fortifications being built throughout the country side. Read the rest of this entry »