Imperial Garden
Exiting the Kun Ning Gong and going further north, travelers will find the Imperial Garden. The garden is connected with the six palaces on both sides of the central axis of the Forbidden City. The rectangular Imperial Garden is 90 meters long from north to south and 130 meters wide from west to east, with a land expanse of about 11, 700 square meters. The Garden contains more than 20 different buildings in different styles: pavilions, terraces, towers and rockeries.
The garden offers an aesthetic change from the crimson or gray building complex to a colorful and luxuriant atmosphere. Qin An Dian, or the hall of Imperial Peace is built exactly on the central axis. It is a Taoist temple and houses a statute of the Xuan Wu King. The Great King Xuan Wu was believed to be the God of Water that could prevent the whole City from catching fire.
The Duixiu Hill or Hill of Piling Beauties was the place that the Emperor and his Empress climbed during the Chongyang Festival (one of the important traditions of the festival is to clime a hill to view the scenery in the distance). The Imperial Garden has become a very popular place where tourists take a rest and take photos before they exit the Forbidden City.
