Unlock the Forbidden City with Caelan-Step onto the royal path and get some good luck

it's made of iron we're going to see some copper ones plated with one layer of gold so they made it in the Ming Dynasty and so ** do you know what happened in 1492 was it the armory explosion no no that was 20 something no I don't remember armory explosion yeah what kind of an explosion happened that killed like 20,000 people you mean in Beijing

yeah that one took place around the 16th something 1620s so that one 1492 Columbus oh Columbus made their way to North America okay okay and this emperor by the way this emperor was the only monogamous emperor in China history Emperor Hongzhi and he's a very good man married only one lady no concubines

no pretty girls at all a very good emperor and on top of that who was also the inventor of the toothbrush you can Google him really who invented the toothbrush he's one of those multiple inventors it used to contain water in it to put out the fire wow but they didn't work very well because lightning...

because lightning...

by the way they would put a like a water pump next to it they could pump the water but that was not very efficient that's why the buildings were burned down many times in their history this is the newest building established in the Forbidden City which was created in 1890 this is the youngest really yes and there's a fire hole stays underneath

where used to set up the fire during the winter time to keep the water inside from freezing like this time they would put up the fire underneath taihe dian dian refers to the palace oh dian okay eleven of them the one in the back with a horn that one doesn't count got you so the first one is that one is just like the decoration okay

these eleven mythical figures have the function the first one is a man riding on a rooster and followed by the chinese dragon phoenix lion seahorse heavenly horse suanni yayu xiezhi douniu hangshi 9 mythical figures in the middle and with 2 human figures in the front and in the back so 9 animals and plus

2 human figures they are doing such duties of warding off the evil spirit of the palace and protecting the emperor's palace from catching fire obviously they didn't do a very good job yeah I was gonna say because the original palace was created in 1420 but it was strucked in down by lightning only 100 days after its completion really yes the current palace was reestablished

in1695 it is old but it's not the original version this is the fifth version in the history they had to change it because the old ones didn't protect it very well yes and the building was retouched in 2008 right before the Olympic Games oh okay let's have a look take a look of this mythical animal so this animal is called bixi wow bixi

yes one of nine sons of the dragon this is the mythical animal and this is actually the children when a dragon marries a turtle when a dragon marries a turtle it looks like this dragon head turtle so together with a crane the bird of crane over here they are the symbols of long life longevity

they are also the incense burners when the ceremonies are taking place over here they would put the incense into the body wow and the smoke would be coming out from where from the mouth from the mouth got you I also will teach you some English in the Forbidden City like as auspiciousness do you ever heard of that word auspiciousness I've heard of it but i never used it what does it mean it means good omen

good luck good omen or it's called jixiang in Chinese okay good omen good luck good symbol got you auspiciousness so that's one a lot of American people you know couldn't get a sense of that word auspiciousness yeah okay anyway let's take a look at this building baohe dian here is the place where used for the emperor

to entertain the ministers officials generals and foreign ambassadors during the chinese new year's eve so which served as a banquet hall or the ball room of the emperor and here was also the place for that famous the most important examination took place back in the day that system worked out in China for like 1300 years

examination which is called Imperial examination with the system composed by 4 different levels started from the county level provincial level national level and the Imperial level the ultimate level took place here right in this palace so which were presided by the emperor himself and three scholars who scored the highest would have the honor to walk on the marble passage

right in the middle over here on the marble passage so which is considered as the greatest honor for the scholar for the scholar's family and for the scholar's hometown because it's extremely difficult for these people to make their way into this palace these 300 scholars they were the best from the best they were the elites from 3 million scholars back in the day

so extremely difficult do they win money like not only the money they would definitely win money but they would mobilize their social status tobe somebody important to become somebody it would help them with their career and everything that's right they would become the officials and ministers that's the only way the only major way

to shift your social status to become someone important during those peaceful period do you know what the other way is to mobilize your social status to be someone important marry no not this it's not gonna happen eunuch oh yeah I guess to be the eunuch you would get this unique special access to the emperor true

empress and the concubines some big figures in the country then sometimes you can say something on behalf of these big figures true and 1 out of 100 eunuchs would become very important very wealthy and very powerful but most of them 99 percent of them had a very miserable life or you could be a very good poet

and all the top people would like your art invite you over like confucius yeah probably but you are still lik the poet like the painter nothing to do with the ministers officials or the government servant so that's something they were chasing for to take this examination can I walk on it？

so I can get some good luck sure yeah got a very good academic luck you are still young so they walk on this, right?

yes that's right that's the greatest honor for these people because only the emperor was allowed to walk on this marble passage common people, no