Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China, a municipality directly under the Central Government, a national central city, a mega-city, a political centre, a cultural centre, an international communication centre, a centre of scientific and technological innovation in China as determined by the State Council, and one of the famous historical and cultural cities and ancient capitals of China. Beijing is located in the north of China and the northern part of the North China Plain, adjoining Tianjin to the east and Hebei to the rest, with a high topography in the northwest and a low topography in the southeast. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides in the west, north and northeast, and a plain that slopes gently towards the Bohai Sea in the southeast. The main rivers flowing through the city include the Yongding River, the Chaobai River, the Northern Canal and the Reomar River, which originate from the mountains in the north-west, pass through the mountains and meander south-eastwards through the plains and finally join the Bohai Sea. Beijing's climate is warm-temperate semi-humid and semi-arid monsoon climate, with high temperatures and rain in summer, cold and dry winters, and short springs and autumns.

The Forbidden City in Beijing is a royal palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties of China, formerly known as the Forbidden City, located in the centre of the central axis of Beijing. The Forbidden City in Beijing is centred on three major halls, covering an area of about 720,000 square metres, with a building area of about 150,000 square metres, with more than seventy large and small palaces and over nine thousand houses. The Forbidden City in Beijing was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The World Heritage Organisation said of the Forbidden City: "The Forbidden City was the centre of supreme power in China for more than five centuries, and with its landscaped gardens and its vast complex of 9,000 rooms housing furniture and artefacts, it is a priceless historical testimony to Chinese civilisation in the Ming and Qing dynasties." By looking at the Forbidden City from the perspective of Forbidden City Studies, we not only recognise the important value of its ancient buildings and its collection of cultural relics, but also see that the historical remains of the palace are of equal importance; more importantly, the ancient buildings, the collection of cultural relics, the historical remains and the people and events that took place there are an inseparable cultural whole.

The Forbidden City has four gates, the main gate is called the Noon Gate, which is concave in plan. There are five Hanbai jade arch bridges leading to the Taihe Gate behind the Wu Gate. The east gate is named Donghuamen, the west gate Xihuamen and the north gate Shenwumen. The four corners of the Forbidden City have corner towers, 27.5 metres high, with cross roof ridges. The outer court of the Forbidden City in Beijing is dominated by three major halls. The Taihe Hall, the Zhonghe Hall and the Baohe Hall are all built on 8-metre-high I-beam abutments made of Chinese white jade, with the Taihe Hall in front, the Zhonghe in the middle and the Baohe in the back. The three tiers of the abutments overlap, with the edges of each tier decorated with carved Chinese white jade balustrades, pillars and dragon heads, and three tiers of stone steps in the middle of the three tiers carved with coiled dragons, set against a 'royal road' of waves and flowing clouds. On the 25,000 square metre platform there are 1,415 carved balustrades, 1,460 pillars with dragons and phoenixes, and 1,138 dragon heads. The overlapping and undulating form of the three terraces, decorated with such a large amount of Chinese white jade, is a unique style of decoration in ancient Chinese architecture. This decoration, in turn, serves the structural function of a drainage pipe for the platform.

Small holes are carved under the medical device stones of the balustrade; small holes are also carved in the taps protruding from under the lookout columns. In the rainy season, the rainwater from the 3 terraces drains down through each small opening layer by layer, and the water flows out through the taps. This is a scientific and artistic design. The fact that the Forbidden City has become a World Heritage Site has deepened people's understanding of the value of its ancient architecture. The Forbidden City represents a culture that has become history and has the shell of palace culture, while at the same time it represents the mainstream culture of the time, which has been filtered and accumulated over a long period of history and cannot, of course, simply be summarised as 'feudal backwardness'. The Forbidden City and the museum are not unrelated or opposed, but are organically united and complementary.

When you combine them, you can see that the Palace Museum is one of the very few museums in the world that is simultaneously a museum of art, architecture, history and palace culture, and that conforms to the internationally recognised basic principles of 'in situ conservation' and 'in situ display'. The museums and cultural heritage of the world The fundamental spirit of World Heritage is cultural diversity, and from the perspective of World Heritage, efforts have been made to explore and recognise the outstanding and universal values of the Forbidden City.