[stephenkhoo]

Inside there are five halls, seventeen palaces, and numerous other buildings. The Forbidden Palace is reputed to have a total of 9,999 rooms. In some accounts, the Forbidden City has 9,999.5 rooms - the half-room, apparently, houses nothing more than a staircase.



The digit 9 was seen as a special, magic number, especially for emporers, because it is the highest value ordinal. Also, the word for nine in Chinese, 'jiu', is a homonym for 'long / lengthy'. The number of rooms has a further rationale : because the Forbidden City was on Earth, it was impossible to have 10,000 rooms, which would conflict with the number of rooms in the version found in Heaven because the number 10,000 symbolizes infinity.
故宫因有9999间房,有资料记载故宫里共有9999间半——那半间无非就是一个楼梯间。
数字九被视为特殊的有魔力的数字，尤其是对于皇帝，一位它是最大的有效实数。九这个数字在汉字里的发言也和“久”同音。因为天宫里有1万间，而紫禁城是地上的皇宫人间的皇​宫当然不能超过天宫的数量。

Marble slab weighing 60 tons were moved manually by labour 60 km away, how did they do it? It seems they moved it during winter when the path was ice, simply ingenius and amazing. After it was transported it was carved by master craftsmans along the steps.



This is the Emperor throne in forbidden city, you can see the big sign with words Zhen Da Kuang Min depicting the integrity, honesty and justice. It is said during the old times there was a scroll hidden behind the signage for the next successor.


This is interesting you can see a full length mirror, do you know why?

It is said for emperor to look behind him to ensure he is safe and there is no assasin.

This pot is made of gold but was too heavy to be moved during the revolution, so the rebels came and scrapped the gold off, you can see the scratches. It sits on brick and is heated during winter to ensure the water does not freeze. Purpose is to have water also for dousing fire as Forbidden city is mainly wooden structure.


tiles in forbidden city was laid up to 7 layers of brick to deter rebels from digging tunnel from outside the city


In 1883, 9th year of reign of Emperor Guangxu, a copy of the memorial from Shutianfu to Premier government consulting the date of opening for Tongzhou Telegraphic bureau


Doors in the Forbidden City and Imperial gardens were often decorated with nine rows of nine bolts.
When I walked past the doors and gates of these enormous and majestic structures that withstood 600 years of time, for a brief moment I could imagine the vibrancy and supremacy of Forbidden City during its hey day when China was ruled by the different Imperial Dynasty of its time.



You can view the rest of the Forbidden City pictures here

At Wang Fu Jin, I was here 9 years ago and both the hat and lamb shops are still around. How time flies!

More pics of Wang Fu Jin here

Earlier you saw the pictures of Forbidden City and now I snapped a pic of the CCTV building, look at their progress and ambition for the future!


then we went to a mall for xiabu xia bu and please have a look at this huge inverted screen

More pics of the CCTV and Screen here