THE FORBIDDEN CITY, Buildings West Side Ii

The Palace of the Queen Consort was the areas reserved for the emperors’ favorite concubines. If you look carefully, you can see two pairs of rusted iron rings hanging from the beam on the outside. If you’re wondering what they were for, the empress Wanrong, the companion of the last emperor of China, Puyi, loved swings, so the emperor had these rings built so a rocker could be hung on them.

Beside this palace is the Palace of Eternal Spring. If you look closely at the walls of the corridors, you’ll see they are decorated with scenes from “A Dream of Red Mansions”, one of the best-known Chinese novels. Because it tells of the corrupt aristocracy, the book was banned by the Qing government, but the Empress Dowager Cixi loved the work so much she ordered the mural to be painted.

The last proprietor of this palace was Wenxiu, one of the wives of Emperor Puyi, who remained here from the age of 13 to the age of 16. Wenxiu was the first and only woman to divorce an emperor, in 1931.

Now press pause, visit the palace, and press play again when you reach the Hall of Supreme Pole. ...