For centuries, this was the sound of Beijing.

For the better part of 600 years, these mighty drums that surround me now in the upper story

of the old drum tower kept time and did so across multiple dynasties. The drums signalled the staff,

the night watch and the changing of the guard. And so it remained until well into the 20th century

when Western timekeeping took their place. Today, the drums can still be heard.

They're less functional now and more for ceremony, an ancient rhythm beating at the heart of a very modern city.

And I really mean at the heart, because if you've ever been to Beijing, you'll know that nestled in its centre,

surrounded by soaring skyscrapers and bright LED billboards and densely

packed neighbourhoods, lies the most extraordinary historic core.

Laid out along a grand central axis, the drum tower where I am now is at one end and the

imposing Yongding Meng gate flanked by its carved stone lions at the other.

In between them, at the very heart of the city stands the largest palace complex in the world,

a place from which, for centuries, China's emperors ruled from behind impenetrable walls. This was a grand, mysterious

court of ritual and ceremony, a place of political intrigue and brilliant ideas, of family

rivalries, of love and death. This was a place where China's dynasties rose and fell,

a place where modern China was forged.

You're listening to Dan Snow's history hit,

and in today's episode, I'm in Beijing

to uncover the story of the Forbidden City,

China's imperial palace.

The United States So I've come to the Jingshung Park now that sits between the drum tower and the forbidden city

on that monumental line of imperial buildings that runs north-south through the heart of old Beijing.

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