The Forbidden City (故宫) used to be the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is situated north of the Tiananmen Square. With a length of 960 meters and a width of 750 meters, this palace complex covers a floor space of 720,000 square meters, and has 9,999 buildings, this makes it the world’s biggest palace complex.
The Forbidden city is surrounded with a 52-meter-long, 6-meter-deep moat and a 10-meter-high, 3,400-meter-long city wall with one gate on each side. There are four towers overlooking the city inside and outside on the four corners. It is listed by the UN as a World Cultural Heritage site and is the hottest tourist attraction in Beijing.
