The Forbidden City
Beijing China
2014

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing.

https://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/forbidden-city/

To represent the supreme power of the emperor, given from Heaven, and the place where he lived being the center of the world, all the important gates and halls of the Forbidden City were arranged symmetrically on the north-south central axis of old Beijing.

Heaven was thought to be Polaris (the North Star), the only seemingly stationary star in the northern sky, and the Forbidden City's layout points its visitors straight at "Heaven".

In the Forbidden City, there are many animal statues in front of the palace gates or the palaces. If looking carefully, you can even find them on the roofs, windows, columns, doors of the architecture. In Chinese culture, these are auspicious animals to ward off evil spirits, bring good fortune and luck, and pray for permanent and continuous blessing of the country.

The dragon is the most revered animal in China, and ancient Chinese emperors are called as the “son of dragon”, so the most frequently seen animal in the Forbidden City is dragon. For instance, the most supreme building of the whole imperial palace, Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihedian), has 13,844 dragon patterns and dragon carvings inside and outside. And it is calculated that there are a total of over 50,000 dragons in the whole Forbidden City. Among these dragons, the 4 gilded bronze dragons on the roof of the Yuhuage Pavilion are particularly peculiar. They are 3 meters long crunching on the roof, seeming like just take a break there and would fly downward anytime. Inside the Palace of Gathered Elegance (Chuxiugong), where the Empress Dowager Cixi lived, there is also a dragon statue, implying Cixi’s ambition to replace the emperor.

Kirin (Qilin)

In front of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility (Cininggong) there is a pair of gilt animals, characterized by dragon heads, two horns, four hooves and scales. They were placed in front of the Cininggong, suggesting that the concubines who had had children with the previous emperor were living here.

Haetae (Xiezhi)

In the Imperial Garden, there is a pair of gilt animals in front of the gate looking very similar to the gilt animals in front of Cininggong. But look closely, you will find they have single horn on their dragon head and their feet are claws instead of hooves. In Chinese culture, this animal haetae, can distinguish the rights and wrongs, and tell the goods and evils. It is said that if two people are engaged in a lawsuit or dispute, the haetae will use the horn to pierce the wrong man, so it also represents the legal justice. For ancient officials who are responsible for the supervision and judicial, their clothes are often decorated with haetae.