The Story of the Forbidden City (English-Chinese Edition): 34 Photographic Postcards by Master Photographers

This is not a guidebook, and it is not a coffee-table book you keep on a shelf. It is a set of 34 tear-out postcards, printed with photographs of the Forbidden City by three of China‘s most respected architectural photographers—Li Shaobai, Bai Wen, and Li Bo. Some images show the palace the way you have seen it in pictures: vast courtyards, golden roofs, the long axis of imperial power. Others show a Forbidden City most visitors never notice—a corner of a wall, a shadow on a stair, a quietness that settles after the crowds leave. You can keep the cards, frame them, or write on the back and send them. The captions are in Chinese and English. If you want to hold the Forbidden City in your hand and pass it on—rather than read a history of the palace or flip through a conventional photo album—this is it.