As you know, the Forbidden City contains 9,999 buildings, so it is easy to get lost unless one is familiar with the Chinese architectural layout, although it is definitely symmetrical. Now I will take you for a virtual tour around the mysterious palace complex. Now start your tour in the Forbidden City from Wumen, called Meridian Gate in English. It is also named Five-Phoenix Tower, Wufenglou in Chinese, for it looks like a phoenix with five pavilion buildings up there. It's the main gate and south gate of the Forbidden City. Inside the Meridian Gate, there appear Inner Golden Water Bridges. Water flows beneath these white marble bridges. The Golden Water River of this section is very gorgeous, well decorated. The riverbed and the bank were paved with white stones. Decorative marble columns and banisters were established along the river. Standing on the bridges, one can see a grand structure called Gate of Supreme Harmony, which is the most impressive gate in the city with two bronze lions guarding the front. On the square between Taihemen and Wumen, imperial honor guards paraded before grand ceremonies.
Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in the Forbidden City. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations in the palace are painted yellow; even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process. However, there is one exception. Wenyuange, the royal library, has a black roof. The reason is that it was believed black represented water then and could extinguish fire.
The collections of the Palace Museum are based on the Qing imperial collection. According to the results of a 1925 audit, some 1.17 million items were stored in the Forbidden City. In addition, the imperial libraries housed one of the country's largest collections of ancient books and various documents, including government documents of the Ming and Qing dynasties. From 1933, the threat of Japanese invasion forced the evacuation of the most important parts of the Museum's collection. After the end of World War II, this collection was returned to Nanjing. However, with the Communists' victory imminent in the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist government decided to ship the pick of this collection to Taiwan. Of the 13,427 boxes of evacuated artifacts, 2,972 boxes are now housed in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Almost ten thousand boxes were returned to Beijing, but 2,221 boxes remain today in storage under the charge of the Nanjing Museum. After 1949, the Museum conducted a new audit as well as a thorough search of the Forbidden City, uncovering a number of important items. In addition, the government moved items from other museums around the country to replenish the Palace Museum's collection. It also purchased and received donations from the public. Today, there are over a million rare and valuable works of art in the collection of the Palace Museum.
After being the home of 24 emperors — fourteen of the Ming Dynasty and ten of the Qing Dynasty — the Forbidden City ceased being the political centre of China in 1912 with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. Under an agreement with the new Republic of China government, Puyi remained in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was given over to public use, until he was evicted after a coup in 1924. The Palace Museum was then established in the Forbidden City. In 1933, the Japanese invasion of China forced the evacuation of the national treasures in the Forbidden City. Part of the collection was returned at the end of World War II, but the other part was evacuated to Taiwan in 1947 under orders by Chiang Kai-shek, whose Kuomintang was losing the Chinese Civil War. This relatively small but high quality collection was kept in storage until 1965, when it again became public, as the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving 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. if you travel in Shanghai,some Shanghai hotels if good choose for you:Fountain Hotel Shanghai,or you can also choose Donghu Hotel Shanghai ,it's all up to you .but some other people say that Hua Xia Hotel Shanghai is a great hotel.just give it a try.