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==Layout==
==Layout==
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> As many as several hundred consorts and concubines of the emperor also lived within the palace walls.<ref>Huang, 28.</ref>
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> As many as several hundred consorts and concubines of the emperor also lived within the palace walls.<ref>Huang, 28.</ref>
Surviving palace buildings today include some 9,000 halls, gates, and other distinct architectural elements, covering roughly 150,000 m<sup>2</sup> within the larger 720,000 m<sup>2</sup> palace compound.<ref name=changhong82>Guo Changhong, 82.</ref>
===Forbidden Palace===
===Forbidden Palace===
The ''Shénwǔmén'' (神武門) was the main gate on the north side of the palace. This area, surrounded by high walls on all four sides, and in turn by a moat, was about 1000 meters from the ''Shénwǔmén'' in the north to the ''Wǔmén'' in the south, and about 760 meters from east to west.<ref name=hirakawa/>
The ''Shénwǔmén'' (神武門) was the main gate on the north side of the palace. This area, surrounded by high walls on all four sides, and in turn by a moat, was about 1000 meters from the ''Shénwǔmén'' in the north to the ''Wǔmén'' in the south, and about 760 meters from east to west.<ref name=hirakawa/>
==Palace Museum==
The Palace Museum, established in 1925 after the Forbidden City became public/state property, is one of the largest and most major museums in the world. At the height of Qing imperial collecting, it's believed the imperial collections contained as many as 1.1 million objects.<ref name=changhong82/>
Roughly 1.5 million of the items housed at China's first national museum, the Antiques Exhibition Hall (est. [[1913]]), are held at the Palace Museum today.<ref>Guo Changhong, 83.</ref>
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