In 2009 I found myself travelling around China on a whistle-stop tour visiting the countries great cities and landmarks. Somewhere that I had always wanted to visit was The Forbidden City in the former capital of Peking a city now renamed Beijing.

It lived up to all expectations when I finally got there. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in what is now the middle of Beijing and houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

The architecture is amazing, the scale mindblowing and its history resonates from every corner ofpalace the complex.