Beijing, China

And another official card for today...a really great card as well...

CN-85533

Comes from Beijing, and it shows the Palace Museum. It was established on October 10, 1925, and is China's largest museum. It is also known as the 'Purple' Forbidden City in Chinese, or the Forbidden City as it is commonly known in English. It covers 720,000 square meters and was the imperial palace for a succession of twenty-four emperors and their dynasties during the Ming and Qing periods of Chinese history. The museum is also China's largest and most complete architectural grouping of ancient halls. Construction was begun in 1420, the eighteenth year of Yongle, so that the site hasexisted for the past 580 years.
More than 70 halls of various sizes, containing more than 9,000 rooms, comprise the Forbidden City. These halls are aligned along a north-south axis, and extend out on either side in an east-west symmetry. The central axis not only passes through the Purple Forbidden City, but extends south to Yongding Gate and north to the Bell and Drum Towers, for a length of some eight kilometers. This passage through the entire city of Beijing symbolizes the centrality of the imperial power: the imperial seat is at the very center of this line. The architectural design lines up the buildings in neat array and with imposing scale. In a concentrated form, this assemblage expresses China's artistic traditions in the setting of China's unique architectural style.

well, that also makes it a UNESCO whs as well...

As for the stamp...well no stamp...just a red machined print...and i thought this didnt happen in China :)
Well it IS a pity, since China has such great and various stamps....