Customer Reviews

Discoveries: Forbidden City (Discoveries (Harry Abrams))

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I have been fascinated with the Forbidden City ever since I saw the movie, The Last Emperor. This little book is just jam packed full of information. Lots of pictures (old and new), maps of the grounds, so that you can easily understand the relationship of the buildings to one another, plus old paintings & drawings. Lots of text on the emperors, concubines, artwork, temples and gardens. It is a mini history lesson. I liked this book so much I have ordered others in the discoveries series, I hope they are as interesting as this one.

This book is cleverly laid out, well edited, and the best of the three books I bought on the world's largest palace--the 2000-acre Forbidden City. For a pocket guide it is outstanding--full of everything from photos of rooms in the palace, art objects, paintings, sculpture, emperors, empresses, eunuchs, and poems. It even includes interviews with Bertolucci (maker of the film The Last Emperor), the words of the last emperor himself, and commentaries that give insight into court life.

My only criticism is that there is no large or comprehensive map. The maps included are so small for such a large palace, that at least half of the areas are unmarked. Since the Chinese names for the buildings are etheral, they also make you guess as to the building's function such as "Hall of Concentrated Beauty" or "Gate of Heavenly Purity". More running commentary on buildings would be appreciated.

Luckily, in the palace, there are a few english plaques explaining the purpose of halls, especially the outer or formal section. As I understand it, most of the palace is open for visiting, although the private sections are in need of repair. Check out their website under "Palace Museum" which is the official title of the Forbidden City. I had a hard time with it but it is surprising to me that they are even on the web. I tried to download a map from the web, but it failed and the information provided on the website is incomprehensive.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in China's history. It's a lot of book for $10.

I think this slim guide, that slips easily into a pocket, is the perfect beginner's guide to the Forbidden City. It does have great photos, historical drawings and the maps (arial and drawn) of this World Culture Site, but in addition, it has an entire section at the back on documents pertaining to the Forbidden City, including historical eyewitness accounts, Ming and Qing chronologies, and a short biblography for going more into depth.

I have not been to Mainland China (yet), but i used this little book to prepare for a visit to the fabulous temporary exhibit on Emperor Qianlong and the Golden Age of the Forbidden City now on loan from Beijing to Chicago's Field Museum . It made the experience very rich indeed.

Béguin and Morel's book is their second version, the first one having a slightly different title. "The Forbidden City, Heart of Imperial China. Kean Chhay Chang wrote a very good review of that edition, which you can see under the aforementioned title here on the Amazon site. From what she wrote, I don't think they've changed much (thank goodness!) but in this edition the maps are not straddling two pages, as mentioned in a review of the previous edition.

My only regret is that it doesn't cover much of the private compounds within the Forbidden City, but then none of the guidebooks I saw at the exhibit did either.

Just perfect in all respects, but we ordered it from one of Amazon's used book partners, and it arrived with library stamps and bar codes on the edges and back cover. We bought it to replace a county library version that we lost in China, but our local library wouldn't accept this one because of the other library stamps on it. Your Amazon used book partner contacted soliciting feedback, heard our problem, and immediately resolved it. This is great customer service, and one reason we like to shop at Amazon. Also give an attaboy to your used book partner.
Discoveries: Forbidden City (Discoveries (Abrams))

I was disappointed at the size of the book for the price. I've seen as the same, and as good historic photographs, on a bigger and better scale. Being in the printing business, I don't believe you take a maginificant picture and put it on the fold. Stupid for so so-called authors Beguin and Morel. Shame, shame, shame. Good subject, very bad presentation.