Refine your search

The results of your search are listed below alongside the search terms you entered on the previous page. You can refine your search by amending any of the parameters in the form and resubmitting it.

Select all Deselect all Add selection to lightbox
Large Small
Thumbnails per page
The Qing like all dynasties that ruled China made much use of eunuchs in the Imperial Palace.<br/><br/> In China, castration included removal of the penis as well as the testicles. Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time.<br/><br/> The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ fell to 470 by 1912, when the practice of using them ceased. The last Imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died in December 1996.
A high definition aerial photograph of the entire Forbidden City in Beijing. The top of the image is north. Tiananmen Gate is to the south.
The Beijing Palace-City Scroll, now held in the National Museum of China, Beijing. Painted in the mid-Ming Dynasty (c. 15th century), depicting figures including the chief architects of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five hundred years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.<br/><br/> Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.