Forbidden gates swing open

Meridian Gate towers above the entrance to the Palace Museum in Beijing, once China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911 and also known as the Forbidden City. During the imperial years, numerous royals, high officials and nobles walked through this gate, which stands for solemnity, ritual and order. They stepped into a "forbidden" place, closed to outsiders where the course of their own destinies — and often the fate of the country — was shaped.