Forbidden City — 600 years of imperial ghosts in the heart of Beijing

The Forbidden City in central Beijing is a 100-hectare complex of former imperial palaces that served as the home of Chinese emperors for nearly 500 years, from the Ming dynasty to the fall of the Qing in 1912. With such an immense history of power, intrigue, murder, and tragedy, the Forbidden City has accumulated centuries of ghost stories. Staff members and security guards who work in the palace complex after closing hours have reported hearing the sound of court music — the distinctive tones of Chinese instruments — emanating from empty halls. EVP recordings taken in the palace have allegedly captured voices speaking in classical Chinese. Visitors have reported seeing women in imperial court dress walking through the Inner Court, the quarters where concubines and palace women lived lives of gilded imprisonment. The most famous legend involves a rainy night when visitors reportedly saw a group of palace maids walking in single file through a courtyard, illuminated by lantern light — a scene from centuries past replayed before modern witnesses. The Forbidden City closes to visitors at 5 PM, and no one is allowed to remain overnight, partly due to the difficulty of securing such a vast complex — and partly, according to some staff, because of what happens in the palaces after dark.