Beijing’s Forbidden City is a place full of wonder. From its thousands of rooms to its many beautiful artifacts, there’s no wonder it’s one of China’s most popular tourist destinations.
But even more than 600 years after it was built, it’s still managing to serve up surprises.
Since it was built during the Ming Dynasty, it’s estimated that the Forbidden City has survived more than 200 earthquakes.
And while most structures aren’t made to survive natural disasters, let alone ones built hundreds of years ago, it seems that the Forbidden City was built to withstand anything.
A recent television documentary by UK broadcaster Channel 4 explored the skills of the ancient building’s designers. A group of Chinese carpenters and engineers were shown building a scale model of one of the Forbidden City’s palaces, at one fifth of the size.
To show how strong ancient Chinese architecture really is, the model was put to the test. It was subjected to a simulated earthquake of 9.5 on the Richter scale – equivalent to the largest ever recorded quake – and survived. Instead of falling apart, the model was just moved gently during the test.
According to experts, the answer to the Forbidden City’s strength, as well as other ancient Chinese structures’, lies in dougong– a centuries-old building method invented in China.
This is the name for special brackets on buildings. Despite being held together without any nails or glue, the brackets are perfect at keeping structures together when the weather gets rough.
“Dougong design is an important earthquake-resistant feature of classical Chinese structures because the frameworkchanges in shape when under pressure, much like the shock absorbers of a car,” according to Chinese National Geography.
“Ancient Chinese craftsmen created structures that were both enduring and aestheticallypleasing [using dougong], revealing their advanced understanding of mathematics, architecture, materials, and structural science.”
The Forbidden City draws visitors because of its rich history and cultural significance, but perhaps it should add one more thing to its list of attractions: earthquake shelter.