Palaces to visit Route de la soie

The Forbidden City is one of the great architectural legacies of ancient China and one of the only imperial palaces still standing in China today!

History

She served the emperors of the last two dynasties, Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911), and was built in only fourteen years between 1406 and 1420, when the second Emperor of Ming, Yongle (1360-1420) 24) moved the capital from Nankin to Beijing. The speed of building this 74-hectare set surrounded by a wide water gap of 50 meters, and a wall of 10 meters high, is quite surprising! More than 200,000 craftsmen participated in the construction and supreme sophistication of construction techniques, combining modernity (prefabrication and standardization) and tradition (aesthetic and symbolic), entered into the design of this masterpiece. The City was completely cut off from the outside world until 1924, when Puyi (1906-1967), the last of the twenty-four emperors who succeeded it, was expelled.

The palace is now one of the world's largest museums, astonishing witness to imperial golden age. It is a perfect example of Chinese classical architectural and urban aesthetic theories. This gigantic City adopts traditional rectangular form (N-S: 960 m; E-O: 750 m), preserved during multiple enlargements.

The current buildings date almost all of the eighteenth century: In 1664, the Mandchous burned the existing set to rebuild the palace of the new Qing dynasty on the ruins of the old. High quality materials from Fangshan quarries in the suburbs of Beijing for stone blocks, Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou for wood were used in construction.

Visit

The ensemble consists of three distinct parts symmetrically taking place on a north-south axis: public buildings in front, private quarters in the center, and imperial garden in the rear. 9,999 rooms in total (not one more: According to legend, Jade emperor has a palace of 10,000 pieces in the sky, his son, the land emperor should not have that privilege).

The main entrance of the City. Wumen (not to be confused with Tian 'anmen gate, entrance of the ancient Ming City) consists of five openings, that of the center reserved for the Emperor, both of the east to the military and civilian, both from the west to the members of the imperial family.

The three palaces of the Front. On the front, a row of five marble bridges, representing the five confucian virtues (kindness, intelligence, fidelity, righteousness, respect for rites…) jammed the river to Golden Waters, and then came the gate of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Men) which leads to the great courtyard: the central esplanade, which can accommodate up to 90,000 people, where official ceremonies were held.

All around the world there are galleries with books and treasures, dishes, silks, stones and other objects… which the emperor could offer as a reward. In the middle of this esplanade is a terrace with 3 floors of white marble. Each level is surrounded by a balustrade with gurgles. On the large access stairs, the imperial emblem will be noticed in the dragons winding down.

Your steps will then lead you to the Supreme Harmony Hall (Taihe Dian) held by the two symbols of justice and imperial correctness: a solar dial on the right and a grain measure on the left.

In front of the Supreme Harmony Hall and the palace of Celestial Purity, you will see magnificent bronze turtles, symbols of peace. Within the Supreme Harmony Hall, on a seven-step stage, stands a throne; history tells us that the emperor was receiving visits by foreign envoys and presided over various ceremonies.

Just above the throne, by raising your eyes, you will see in the middle of a superb upper ceiling two golden dragons playing with a giant pearl, a motif often found in decoration on the Chinese ceramics of the time. For the anecdote, some say that the dragon represents the man constantly trying to catch the pearl, which would symbolize the woman, and play with it!

Don't forget to admire the roofs of each palace! That of the Supreme Harmony Hall is the most spectacular; its double roof covered with glazed yellow tiles is richly decorated. In order to remove evil spirits, ten fabulous creatures, including a lion, a phoenix, a dragon, a winged horse, a unicorn and an immortal, are aligned with the ends of the roofs of the roof. You will find some of these creatures, but in smaller numbers on the different roofs of the palaces of the Forbidden City.

Then you will enter the room of the Harmony of the Middle (Zhonghe Dian), where the emperor came to prepare before sitting in the room of Supreme Harmony… some sort of boudoir of the time in some way!

This hall was also used to receive ministers or other ambassadors in private, but this was mainly where the messages needed to be read in imperial temples, and that is also where the state of the seed was checked annually.

Then comes the Imperial Examinations Room or Hall of the Preserved Harmony (Baohe Dian) where exams to become "doctor" (jin shi) were held after long serving as a banquet hall.

As a general rule, no women were admitted to these halls of the outside court, where the emperor had primarily a representation role.

The three palace palaces; the interior courtyard and the imperial garden. Behind the gate of Celestial Purity (Qianqing Men), guarded by four golden bronze lions, are residential districts composed of a multitude of small halls, today showrooms of imperial treasures: to the west, the "Culture of the Spirit" (Yangxin Dian), where the emperor lived and worked (this is where the last emperor Puyi signed his declaration of abdication and recognition of the Republic in 1912); in the center, the emperor held a hearing in the Palace of Heavenly Peace (Qianqing Gong), followed by the Union of the Union and Peace (Jiaotai Dian), where the imperial unions were celebrated, and the dwelling of the empress (the Palace of Earth Peace; the Kunning Gong).

Then, to access the "Palace of Celestial Purity (Qianqing Gong), we cross a large terrace lined with cranes and turtles in bronze, symbols of immortality and longevity, and we will notice the presence of burning incenses, which are also found in the palace of summer and others." Some say that odors at the time were nauseous and were masked by burning perfumes in quantity!

This palace is the largest of the three and it was the one that hosted the nights of Emperors Ming and the first Qing. He then had a function of courtroom and banqueting (it was said that Emperor Qianlong presided over the «banquet of the ten thousand old» in 1785, which numbered more than 3,000 men aged 60 and over from all corners of the Empire). The last ceremony held there was the wedding of the last emperor Puyi in 1922.

Then comes the hall of the Union (Jiaotai Dian) or also the hall of the Powerful Fertility, conceived on a square plane which was first the hall of the Empress's throne. Then, from the reign of Qianlong, the imperial seals were preserved in this room. You can still admire them in windows. Burned in different stones, 25, they had the signature role, or rather administrative pills.

The Palace of Earth Tranquility (Kunning Gong) was the residence of the Empress under the Ming and was divided into two under the Qing; a large room serving as a sanctuary dedicated to Manchuric divinities, which demanded the offerings of flesh, and a smaller room painted in red, the Eastern Soft Pavilion, which became the bridal chamber of the Qing emperors.

The "Porte de la Paix" opens on the Imperial Garden (Yuhuayuan) in the xve century. Planted with pine and cypress, with its basins, pavilions and rocks, this garden, faithful to the philosophy of all Chinese gardens, tends to give an idealized view of nature in all its aspects: " centenary trees, rocks with tormented forms, Ten Thousand Spring stands and Thousand Autumns with round roofs like on the sky, which rest on a square basis like the Earth and reflect the harmony of the universe ". A small artificial hill stands in a corner of the garden, and it is the only place where the eyes can escape beyond the walls of the Forbidden City. At the top of this hill, a booth from where the emperor watched the moon, the 9 th day of the 9 th lunar month (day of the traditional moon festival).

At the bottom of the garden is the door of the obedient virtue (Shunzenmen), which allows access to the five kitchens of the north and the "door of the military engineer" from where we can reach the hill of coal.

On both sides of the Palais de Behind is a boondoggle of buildings intended for the hosting of the emperor, its wives and the many servants. You can visit the palace of the Lord Spring where the Empress Cixi and the Palace of the Elegances accumulated with a small theater, the Spirit Food Palace and the six palaces of the west, the Palace of Abstinence and the six palaces of the east, the palace of Tranquility and Longevity.…

Walking along the corridors and courses, you will visit temporary exhibitions in some rooms, you will undoubtedly admire the collections of paintings, ancient calligraphy, jades, bronzes, ceramics (mainly exposed in the palaces of the eastern wing). You will have to wander through this magnificent «city in the City» for a long time, to try to absorb you from its splendors… And yet, it holds so many treasures that we must return to it again and again to discover them!

The ensemble has been classified as UNESCO's human heritage since 1987.

This ochre-colored palace, surrounded by a lush greenery near Campo San Stefano, is delightful. Its front façade overlooks the Grand Canal. Its typical Venetian architecture includes a series of added bays and gothic balconies. This is evidenced in particular by the abundant use of sorting (for three) and quadri (four) lobes. The interior is worth a great look for its neo-baroque magnificence: wooden doors, marble staircases, bronze canvas, ceilings adorned with stucco… On the occasion of artistic events, such as the Biennale di Venezia, the palace opens its doors to visitors. On a daily basis, this is the seat of the Venetian Institute of Science, Letters and Arts, which also houses a private school of design.

Its five high, single-column iwans open onto a long inner courtyard lined with a string of summer and winter apartments. Five iwans: one for the khan and the other four for each of his wives... The figure has made several generations of tourists dream, but it is very classic and does not take into account the captives who lived in bulk in the rooms surrounding the courtyard. The apartments of the khan and his wives all have the same architecture: a high iwan open to the northeast, to avoid the baking sunlight of the summer months, and a small adjoining room that is supposed to keep a bearable temperature during the winter months. The slaves and family members of the khan's women lived in the rooms and small iwans lining the courtyard. The ensemble was decorated by the best craftsmen of the time, whose talent seems to have been evident in all parts of the construction: neither the openwork windows of the winter rooms, nor the finely chiselled wooden columns, nor the wooden coffers of the ceilings painted with geometric motifs. The walls of the iwans, entirely decorated with blue and white majolica, are due to the master craftsman Abdullah Djinn who also built the Ark Mosque. The stylistic resemblance is obviously striking, but the proportions are more important here. The walls of the iwans are painted in cool colours while the ceilings are painted in warm colours. At the end of the harem is a room with a ceiling supported by ten wooden columns.

Built in 1560, it houses a splendid ice gallery.

The summer residence of the khans of Bukhara is located in a huge park of more than 6 ha, 5 km from the city. It is a privileged place for walking because of its coolness, especially during the hot summer hours. A first palace surrounded by gardens was built by Amir Akhad Khan at the end of the 19th century. Alim Khan, his son, added a new building in 1914. Bukhara's last khan had studied in St. Petersburg, and his way of life was affected. He commissioned a palace that was undoubtedly intended to be at the cutting edge of modernity, blending Russian architecture with the decorative style of Central Asia. The result is surprising. The tour includes three different bodies of buildings, which have been transformed into museums: the apartments and reception rooms of Alim khan, the octagonal palace and the harem. The reception rooms of Emir Alim Khan, built in a row, in the western style, are a contribution of the Russian architects working at the court of the Emir. The white room is a unique work of art, its walls are entirely covered with finely chiselled white gantch on a background of mirrors. The construction of this Bukhar version of the Ice Palace took three years, during which the architect refused the khan entry to the construction site. When Alim Khan was finally able to admire the result, he was overwhelmed and, resuming the good old ancestral habits, decided to have the architect killed so that he could not share his art with others. Fortunately, Chirin Muradov, the architect of the clean room, was warned in time and managed to escape. At the entrance, a high boudoir is decorated with stalactite niches in which are painted unusual and beautiful bouquets of multicoloured flowers. The walls and ceiling of the games room and waiting room are entirely decorated with gold panels, covered with an extraordinary and somewhat oppressive mosaic of mirrors. The banquet hall is the most original and sumptuous, it had four decorative walls, one for each season, which were changed thanks to a mechanism that no one remembers, but, in any case, the other three decorations disappeared after the revolution. In these rooms are displayed various gifts offered to the Emir, including an original all-glass refrigerator. The mirzo-khona, or secretary's room, is the most sober of the rooms, its three-wing mirror is, it seems, magical. Looking at it, you have to make a wish, which comes true within 40 days... At the end of the building, the veranda exposes a beautiful collection of antique vases from all over the world. The octagonal palace is a museum devoted to national costume, where ceremonial clothes, multicoloured khalat or dark paranjas are displayed amidst pictures of the princely family. Clothes were usually made by women, but gold thread designs were embroidered only by men. The octahedral hall for guests was originally decorated with gold leaf; after the revolution, gold would have been replaced by bronze and taken to Russia. The harem houses the Embroidery Museum. The different decorative techniques are illustrated by one of the most beautiful collections of suzani from Uzbekistan. In front of the harem is a large body of water. It is said that the Emir used to sit in the domed platform that borders this pool to watch his wives bathe, and would choose the chosen one from his heart by throwing an apple at her.

Built in 1487, this palace is continued by a legendary misfortune.

The current seat of the Biennale.

Archetype of the Venetian residence and masterpiece of Mauro Coducci, dating from the th century.