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==Layout==
==Layout==
The Forbidden City complex covers a massive area, and includes a great many buildings and gates.
The Forbidden City complex covers a massive area, roughly a quarter of a square mile for the palace proper at the height of the Ming, and includes a great many buildings and gates. It sat within the Imperial City, a three-square-mile area closed to the general public and generally seen only by scholar-bureaucrats and others of the government and palace. This larger area included, among many other facilities, gardens and lakes, residences for the palace eunuchs, bakeries, confectioneries, banquet halls, stables, armories, printers, a book depository, temples, imperial residences, and supply depots, rendering the Imperial City, essentially, self-sufficient. The palace was staffed by as many as 20,000 eunuchs and 3,000 women.<ref>Ray Huang, ''1587: A Year of No Significance'', Yale University Press (1981), 12-13.</ref>
===Forbidden Palace===
The Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿, Tàihédiàn) is the largest building within the complex, and it was here that a variety of official state rituals were enacted, including the offering by officials and others (including foreign embassies) of formal New Year's greetings to the emperor. The Hall of Supreme Harmony faces south across a plaza, accessed by the Gate of Supreme Harmony (太和門, Tàihémén) on its southern side. Beyond this is the ''wǔmén'' 午門, the main southern gate of the palace. To the east and west of the Gate of Supreme Harmony stand the Dōnghuámén (東華門) & Xīhuámén (西華門) gates respectively.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿, Tàihédiàn) is the largest building within the complex, and it was here that a variety of official state rituals were enacted, including the offering by officials and others (including foreign embassies) of formal New Year's greetings to the emperor. The Hall of Supreme Harmony faces south across a plaza, accessed by the Gate of Supreme Harmony (太和門, Tàihémén) on its southern side. Beyond this is the ''wǔmén'' 午門, the main southern gate of the palace. To the east and west of the Gate of Supreme Harmony stand the Dōnghuámén (東華門) & Xīhuámén (西華門) gates respectively.