【正文】
ated by the imposing architecture and solemn ritual were designed to keep the subjects of the Son of the Heaven in awe and reverence. The Hall of Complete Harmony is smaller and square with windows on all sides. Here the emperor rehearsed for ceremonies. It is followed by the Hall of Preserving Harmony in which banquets and imperial examinations were held. Behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony lies a huge marble ramp with intertwining clouds and dragons carved in relief. The slab, about meters long, 3 meters wide and 250 tons in weight, is placed between two flights of marble steps along which the emperor39。 the Hall of Supreme Harmony(4), the Hall of Complete Harmony(5), and the Hall of Preserving Harmony(6). The Hall of Supreme Harmony, rectangular in shape, 27 meters in height, 2,300 square meters in area, is the grandest and most important hall in the Palace plex. It is also China39。故宮的英文介紹 What strikes one first in a bird39。s eye view of Beijing proper is a vast tract of golden roofs flashing brilliantly in the sun with purple walls occasionally emerging amid them and a stretch of luxuriant tree leaves flanking on each side. That is the former Imperial Palace, popularly known as the Forbidden City, from which twentyfour emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties ruled China for some 500 years——from1420 to 1911. The Ming Emperor Yong Le, who usurped the throne from his nephew and made Beijing the capital, ordered its construction, on which approximately 10,000 artists and a million workmen toiled for 14 years from 1406 to 1420. At present, the Palace is an elaborate museum that presents the largest and most plete ensemble of traditional architecture plex and more than 900,000 pieces of