Aside from Beijing's Fengshui-friendly environmental position, Beijing's architecture is also strictly in line with Fengshui theory. The Forbidden City is the best example of Fengshui at work in Beijing.

When Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Di selected Beijing as the capital, the Fengshui masters at the time moved the axial line just a bit to the east from that of the Yuan capital. The new "white tiger" position on the east checked the so-called "imperial momentum" left from the previous dynasty. At the same time, a new Fengshui setup was built along the axis Jingshan Hill and the Forbidden City.

The inner pattern strictly follows the layout of a constellation making Beijing "a city of stars." Ancient Chinese believed the sky was consisted of three parts, with god living in the central part. Accordingly, Beijing's Forbidden City placed the emperor's palace in the middle, and the other parts were built to resemble the layout of heaven as the Chinese thought it would be.

Birdview of Beijing in the 1930s

The useof color is also in line with the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) theory, which was used by ancient Chinese philosophers to explain the origin of the world. The palace walls and pillars are red to denote fire, symbolizing justice and honesty. Most roofs of the Forbidden City are yellow to denote earth and symbolize the emperor must live in the middle. The rooftops in the east of the palace are green, symbolizing the color of the wood in spring. The emperor's children live in the palace. The element of water is demonstrated in the northern part of palace with one gate in colored black. Each structure varies in color according to its function. For instance, the library uses black tiles and black walls since the color symbolizes water, which can extinguish fire, making the place more suitable to store books. In between the Gate of Heavenly Peace and the Duanmen Gate in the south of the palace, there are no trees, as south represents fire.

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