Discoveries: Forbidden City

This book is cleverly laid out, well edited, and the best of the three books I bought on the world's largest palace--the 2000-acre Forbidden City. For a pocket guide it is outstanding--full of everything from photos of rooms in the palace, art objects, paintings, sculpture, emperors, empresses, eunuchs, and poems. It even includes interviews with Bertolucci (maker of the film The Last Emperor), the words of the last emperor himself, and commentaries that give insight into court life. My only criticism is that there is no large or comprehensive map. The maps included are so small for such a large palace, that at least half of the areas are unmarked. Since the Chinese names for the buildings are etheral, they also make you guess as to the building's function such as "Hall of Concentrated Beauty" or "Gate of Heavenly Purity". More running commentary on buildings would be appreciated. Luckily, in the palace, there are a few english plaques explaining the purpose of halls, especially the outer or formal section. As I understand it, most of the palace is open for visiting, although the private sections are in need of repair. Check out their website under "Palace Museum" which is the official title of the Forbidden City. I had a hard time with it but it is surprising to me that they are even on the web. I tried to download a map from the web, but it failed and the information provided on the website is incomprehensive. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in China's history. It's a lot of book for $10.

I have been fascinated with the Forbidden City ever since I saw the movie, The Last Emperor. This little book is just jam packed full of information. Lots of pictures (old and new), maps of the grounds, so that you can easily understand the relationship of the buildings to one another, plus old paintings & drawings. Lots of text on the emperors, concubines, artwork, temples and gardens. It is a mini history lesson. I liked this book so much I have ordered others in the discoveries series, I hope they are as interesting as this one.