Forbidden City
About Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is the imperial palace complex in the center of the Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming and Qing dynasty Emperors, and the center of political power in China for over 500 years from 1420 to 1924. The palace is now administered by the Palace Museum and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Forbidden City is arguably the most famous palace in all of Chinese history, and is the largest preserved royal palace complex still standing in the world.
On the show — 12 mentions total
Every single Manchu woman in the kingdom had to apply to become a concubine in the Forbidden City. You weren't allowed to marry until you'd applied to check the emperor didn't want to marry you.
from 255: No Such Thing As A Bouncy Asteroid, 2019-02-08 at 00:18:54 · read transcript
Other times Forbidden City came up
It's the most Googled TV show of the year 2018, despite the fact that Google is largely banned in China. That's how hugely popular it is. All across Asia, lots of other countries as well. It's been streamed 15 billion times. It's about the rivalry between concubines in the Forbidden City. Concubinging is actually a perfect word for watching this show. 15 billion, that means everyone on earth on average has watched it twice. I know.
No Such Thing As A Bouncy Asteroid, 2019-02-08 · listen
This was the last emperor of China known as Puyi and after having the phone installed he went through a phone book he found one of his favorite opera singers a guy called Yang Xiaolu and he called him up and he said is this the great operatic singer and he said yes and then he just giggled and hung up. He hadn't developed the pranks by that point. No, that's not Bart Simpson level. The second one is closer to sort of teenage pranking. He would call up local restaurants and he would order a bunch of food to an address that wasn't the Forbidden City. Here's a question. It sounds like everyone in the country had telephones apart from him. Possibly.
572: No Such Thing As A Simon Cowell Bell, 2025-02-27 · listen
Another one is The Last Emperor movie, which was filmed based on Poo-Yee. Based on Poo-Y. It was filmed in the Forbidden City. It was an extraordinary achievement of British filmmaking. because they managed to get access to the forbidden city itself to film inside. Even when the queen was over there, she couldn't visit it because they had priority access over filming in there. It was a big deal.
No Such Thing As A Simon Cowell Bell, 2025-02-27 · listen
It's like, we are at war with four separate groups of people, could we have some decisions please? Pick a card. Just on eunuchs, because they were the other group of people that were allowed in the Forbidden City. You couldn't have men with their parts because then they might impregnate the women. There are thousands and thousands of eunuchs and it was actually a good gig because it's the only way you can work really close to the emperor and his government.
255: No Such Thing As A Bouncy Asteroid, 2019-02-08 · listen
More places from this episode
255: No Such Thing As A Bouncy Asteroid put 5 places on the map.
- Thebes · Greece
- Imperial Palace · China
- Yanxi Palace · China
- St Andrews · United Kingdom
Coordinates: 39.9158, 116.3908