How To Protect 9,999 Forbidden City Rooms From Fires For Hundreds Of Years

Fire is the biggest threat to famous landscapes in China due to its many wooden structures.
How to protect 9,999 Forbidden City from fires for hundreds of years
Historically, the 9,999 rooms of the Forbidden City (Beijing, China) have always faced potential fire risks everywhere, from thousands of torches lighting in the palace to the possibility of lightning strikes when it rains. Therefore, Co Cung needed a simple but effective fire protection system for hundreds of years.
Part of that system is 308 cauldrons made of iron or copper. A large cauldron can hold up to 3,000 liters of water

. Every day, the eunuchs had to change clean water for the cauldron to ensure there was no stench, according to China Plus.
History books under Emperor Qianlong record that the gold-plated copper cauldron is 1.66 m in diameter and weighs nearly 1 7 tons.



The cost of casting them costs more than 500 taels of silver (an amount equal to about 50 grams), inlaid with 3 kg of gold around the body of some pieces. To date there are still 18 gilded cauldron placed in Thai Hoa Palace, Dien Bao Hoa and Can Thanh Mon, according to the South Morning China Post.
The cauldrons come in many sizes and styles. Products under the Ming dynasty have natural shape, simple rings attached to the outside. Meanwhile, the design under the Qing dynasty has a round shape with a small mouth, and the lion's head is intricately sculpted.
Many visitors to the Forbidden City often touch the cauldron for luck. Photo: Tall Tales
In winter, the moats in the Palace froze, the mandarins had to find a way to prevent the cauldron of water from the same fate.



All the equal cauldron was placed on the rock with a circular hole in the middle, the eunuch burned coal inside to boil water.
In addition, the ancients also had tools to spray water in the right place. Today, firefighters use water cannons to spray water, but the Chinese used to extinguish the fire as high or as far as "jitong". This device has two ends. When fighting fire, people put buckets of water on one end of "jitong" and push the other end, water will shoot up.
By order of Emperor Kangxi, an army named "Jitong" was formed with responsibility for fire prevention and fighting. In 1905, the "Jitong" squadron was renamed the fire brigade with a size of between 100 and 200 people, according to CGTN.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, more than 20 major fires occurred in this area.



All have a common feature. Tiananmen is like a boundary, fire only burns in the inner palace or the outside. The reason is that Tiananmen overlooks a 30 m wide road, separating the two areas above, preventing fire from spreading through the gate.
Ngo Mon Gate is the largest gate in the Forbidden City, located in the south of the palace. Photo: ZBKC.
The two walls in the East Huamen and West Huamen of the Palace also acted as barriers. The towering walls are reminiscent of a wooden house structure with trusses and columns but are actually built of stone.
The patterns on wooden items are not purely decorative - they help seal and protect the furniture in the bow.



Each paint layer is purposefully painted in multiple layers, while patterned pieces of paper are used to protect the surface of each item.
The Forbidden City was built 600 years ago, today the Chinese still have difficulty moving between electrics if a fire occurs, and cannot install a fire hose in this historic building. Although there are advanced fire fighting equipment such as fire trucks and robots, ancient fire protection methods are still in use.
A fire broke out during the Forbidden City in 2016. Photo: Xinhua.
According to Tieu Bao / Vnexpress
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