The real palace in the late Qing dynasty: it's completely different from what you think.

The Forbidden City in the late Qing Dynasty, where Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Tongzhi and Guangxu lived and worked, represented the supreme dignity of the country. Needless to say, in our imagination, the appearance must be dazzling, beautiful, perfect, brilliant, gorgeous and sparkling. ...

Seeing the old photos taken by foreign photographers, I realized that the appearance of the palace at that time was highly consistent with the fate of the empire: the grassland was desolate and a scene of decline.

1860 10, west of Tiananmen Square, by British photographer Felize? Bito's works. 1860 During the Second Opium War, Bito entered Beijing with the British and French allied forces as a war photographer.

Outside the noon gate of the Forbidden City, it is also Bito's work. I didn't expect the walls of the meridian gate to be so mottled. The majestic momentum is still there, but it is not as shiny as imagined. ...