The Huge Stone Carving

Behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony, between the stair-ways, is a huge one piece marble carving of dragons playing with pearls. This marble was brought here all the way from Fangshan District, about 70 Km away from Beijing city proper.

It is about 17 metres long, 3 metres wide and 1.7 metres thick, weighing about 250 tons. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, anyone who was caught touching this holy stone could be executed.

Without any modern means of transportation, you can imagine how difficult it was for the Chinese labourers to transport such a huge piece of stone here! For every half kilometre, wells were dug and water was pumped out onto the road to ice it up so that the stone could be slid over the ice. In summer, however, rolling logs were used.

Nothing was impossible for the Chinese!

Nothing was too extravagant for the emperor-the Son of Heaven!