Behind
the Hall of Preserving Harmony, between the
stair-ways, is a huge one piece marble carving of dragons playing with pearls. This marble
was brought here all the way from Fangshan District, about 70 Km away from Beijing city
proper.
It is about 17
metres long, 3 metres wide and 1.7 metres thick, weighing about 250 tons. In the Ming and
Qing dynasties, anyone who was caught touching this holy stone could be executed.
Without any modern
means of transportation, you can imagine how difficult it was for the Chinese labourers to
transport such a huge piece of stone here! For every half kilometre, wells were dug and
water was pumped out onto the road to ice it up so that the stone could be slid over the
ice. In summer, however, rolling logs were used.
Nothing was
impossible for the Chinese!
Nothing was too
extravagant for the emperor-the Son of Heaven! |