The formal main gate of the Forbidden City, which a person can walk through only once in a lifetime, and only in one direction - in but never out

When it comes to the gates of the Forbidden City, few people can say clearly just how many gates the whole palace complex has, but there is one gate that everyone is certainly familiar with. It is the Meridian Gate (Wumen), the one that anyone visiting the Forbidden City must pass through, the formal main gate of the Forbidden City. Apart from knowing the saying "dragged out of the Meridian Gate to be beheaded," what else do we know about this gate? The funny thing is, what we all know never actually happened at the Meridian Gate, while what really happened there is little known.

There was once a person who, in her lifetime, got to walk once through the central archway of this gate - seemingly a tremendous honour, but in truth the beginning of a tragedy. Approaching the Meridian Gate, from the front there appear to be only three archways, but in fact there are also two side gates on the left and right of the front face, set into the inner sides of the east and west terrace walls, one facing west and one facing east. These two archways extend east and west respectively into the terrace platform, then turn north and exit from the north side of the terrace. Thus, viewed from the rear of the Meridian Gate, there are five archways, hence the saying "three visible, five hidden." The central passage, which only the emperor could use, could be walked once in a lifetime by the empress - the only time in her life. When the emperor held his grand wedding, the empress was carried in through this gate, and from then on she could never again set foot in it.

For a woman to enter the Forbidden City through the main gate of the imperial palace, and moreover along the path the emperor walked, seems like an immense honour, but it was in fact the beginning of a tragic life. Looking across the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which empress who entered through the main gate met a peaceful end? Take the last empress to enter through the Meridian Gate - she was Empress Dowager Longyu, wife of the Guangxu Emperor. Many people are familiar with her tragic life: she was not outstanding in looks and was gentle and timid by nature; as empress she was neither favoured nor able to win the liking of Empress Dowager Cixi in the palace, and in daily meetings with noblewomen and princess consorts she commanded little authority. By the late Qing dynasty, in her own view she had single-handedly brought the Great Qing dynasty to an end, and she spent her days in gloom and sorrow. When she passed away in Changchun Palace, she was only 46.

Standing in front of the Meridian Gate, who knows what you might feel - this main gate of the imperial palace holds too many stories. We know far too little about it, so little that when we walk past it we see only its height and majesty, and know nothing else.