Page 44 - A History of the World in 25 Cities

Life in
When the Yongle emperor ruled China, he moved his capital city back to Beijing, as it had been decades earlier under the Mongol rulers. From this impressive newly built city, he ruled one of the biggest, oldest and wealthiest civilisations on Earth,
which traded with countries as far away as Africa.
The southern part of the Forbidden City was for men only. Every day, male officials waited outside the Meridian Gate for the emperor’s reception to begin at 5 a.m. There were strict rules about what they wore and where they stood, and all visitors to the emperor had to kneel and put their foreheads to the floor nine times to acknowledge his greatness.
The emperor needed a capital that would show the wealth and might of the Ming. So he built the Imperial City, and the Forbidden City within it, the biggest palace complex in the world. It took hundreds of thousands of craftspeople and labourers 14 years to complete. The walls around the palace complex hid it completely from the rest of Beijing.
The early Ming dynasty was a time of exploration, and the greatest explorer of all was Zheng He, who led expeditions by sea on behalf of the emperor. Together with hundreds of soldiers, he made seven voyages between 1405 and 1433, travelling to India, Japan, the Middle East and the East African coast. He brought back gifts including ostriches, zebras and giraffes, established valuable trade routes, and spread news to the wider world about the mighty Ming dynasty. Later Ming emperors ended these expensive voyages, but local trading by sea continued.
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