Imperial Palaces of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang (1987,2004)

Imperial Palace, located in the center of Beijing Municipality, was also called the Forbidden City, and was the seat of the two Dynasties of Ming and Qing. A largest-scale and most-perfectly-preserved ancient building complex existing now in our country, it was first built from the forth year to the eighteenth year in the Yongle Period of the Ming Dynasty (1406-1420), and was later renovated and reconstructed many times with its original layout still retained. Covering a land of over 720,000 square meters, it has a floor space of approx 150,000 square meters with more than 9,000 houses and rooms; the surrounding palace wall is over 10m high in a length of 3km, with turrets in gorgeous style standing atop four wall corners and a moat of a width of 52m surrounding outside the wall. With an imposing and luxury appearance, the total building complex is of a broad and symmetrical layout and a splendid and brilliant interior and exterior decoration, being the cream of the ancient-time architectural art of our country. In 1987 it was enlisted in the “World Cultural Heritage List”. And on July 1st, 2004 the Shenyang Imperial Palace was also enlisted in the “World Heritage List” as an expanded item of the cultural heritage of the Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.