Why has the roof of the Forbidden City never had bird droppings in it for the past 600 years?

The Forbidden City in Beijing is a magnificent palace that contains the history of China through the ages. It is now used as China's most famous tourist attraction (the Palace Museum).

The Forbidden City has existed for more than 600 years but is still as magnificent as new. (Photo: Sohu)

The Forbidden City was built during the Ming Dynasty and completed after 13 years. After more than 600 years of existence, the Forbidden City still retains its majestic, magnificent beauty, enduring over time.

The Forbidden City covers an area of 720,000 m2 with 800 large and small palaces. It can be seen that the Forbidden City is an extremely large construction with many attractive tourist attractions. There are many different anecdotes about the Forbidden City, one of which is that despite being over 600 years old, the roofs of the rooms and palaces do not have bird droppings or weeds. What is the reason behind this?

Many scientists and architects have participated in the research on this topic. The results of the research were published in the “China Science and Technology Daily”. Accordingly, there are 3 main reasons why birds cannot poop on the roof of the Forbidden City.

Color of the roof

The roofs of the palaces in the Forbidden City are all yellow. According to ancient beliefs, yellow tiles and red walls are symbols of royalty.

From above, the roofs of the palaces are all beautiful yellow. (Photo: Sohu)

However, this yellow color makes birds feel dazzled and reduces their ability to see. Therefore, they will not swoop down to the roof.

Tiles with special materials

According to the staff of the Palace Museum, the use of glazed tiles also helps to prevent birds from roosting on the roof. Glazed tiles often reflect light when the sun shines on them, so birds will feel uncomfortable and not want to come near.

The firing process of this type of tile is very complicated, including material selection, design, molding, bisque firing... After 36 processes, the finished tiles are very smooth.

The roof tiles are all glazed and arranged so that birds cannot perch for too long. (Photo: Sohu)

In fact, in China there is an architectural style called “Oanh bat lac tuong dinh”, which means birds cannot perch on the top. This design mainly focuses on the slope, the width of each brick is larger than the distance between the toes of all birds, making it impossible for them to perch for too long or build nests.

This type of construction is very effective in limiting birds from perching and excreting on the roof.

Likewise, if a seed falls on the roof of the Forbidden City, it will roll down very quickly thanks to the tiles, or be washed away by heavy rain. Thus, it will not have a chance to sprout and grow.

Regular cleaning

In feudal times, the palace often had a separate department responsible for building and repairing the palace. They were all skilled craftsmen selected from all over the country.

People still regularly clean and periodically repair the roofs of the buildings in the Forbidden City. (Photo: Sohu)

This group of workers will renovate the Forbidden City every three years and every five years will replace the eaves and beams of the major buildings.

In addition, they also have to regularly clean the palaces and areas in the imperial palace. Today, the staff of the Palace Museum still regularly clean the roofs of the palaces and buildings. Therefore, the roofs of the palaces in the Forbidden City are always clean and beautiful.

Quoc Thai (Source: Sohu)

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Source: https://vtc.vn/vi-sao-600-nam-qua-mai-cung-dien-tu-cam-thanh-chua-bao-gio-thay-vet-phan-chim-ar771805.html