Meridian Gate

Last crawled date: 1 year, 8 months ago

The Meridian Gate has a very unique appearance. The gate is the largest and main gate within the Forbidden City. It is very grand and it is 35.6 meters high. The gate has a total of five openings, two on each side and one in the middle. Currently, it has a picture of Chairman Mao above the middle opening. Five pavilions surmount the Meridian Gate. The openings in the Meridian Gate have a lot of history. The Meridian Gate has many openings and only specific people could use them. The emperors’ exclusive privilege was entering through the central opening. The east opening was for the ministers, the west opening was for the royal family and the other openings were for the officials. Empresses could only enter once which was on their wedding day. Ordinary people were absolutely forbidden to enter at all! There are other interesting facts to learn about the Meridian Gate.