Forbidden city is located in downtown of Beijing with a lot of the oldest and finest architectures in the country, but within the high walls of these buildings, death was normal. With the hierarchy system, people would sacrifice others to maintain their own power and social statues which lead to a lot of injustice death especially among the palace maids and eunuch. “ Also, a lot of women sent into the Imperial Palace were never able to step out of the high walls for the rest of their lives, and if the king did not favor those women, then they would not have any kid and die alone by themselves in the palace.

“When I went on a tour to Beijing, we were able to go into a small part of the Imperial Palace, but the tour guide told us there are a huge part of the palace which is not open to the public due to the unexplainable things happened in there. I don’t remember who but someone in the group told me that she heard a lot of ghost stories happened in there after 5pm which is the closing time for the palace. She was told that the guard for the palace at night can hear people playing music, sometimes can see palace maids and palace eunuchs walking by which she had experienced. Every building has explainable things happened such as people who have been there disappeared or die which is why they were closed down for tourists. It was also believed that In the morning when you looked down in the wells, you could see a lot of brushes and stones, but after 12am, if you look down, you will be able to see reflection of moon and also the reflection of someone’s face but not your face.”

My friend, Xue Li Lin, told me this story that he heard during his trip in Beijing. He was born and raised in Guangdong, China. He told me this story in Chinese, and the translation is not exact with a few reconstructions of sentences. He told me he had never experienced these himself, but believed it could happen in real life.

This is story with historical backgrounds that even after their death, the palace maids and eunuch still have the obligation to perform their duties. They are afraid of the high authorities will “kill” them if they don’t perform their duties even though they were dead already. The legends were rather convincing to me because I had learn some histories about it when I was little. It was very brutal back in the days that even their own parents can kill their own child to secure their powers. I could imagine a lot of bad death within all the beautiful architecture which lead to hauntings.