The relics of wall base and pile cap from the early Ming Dynasty are discovered in the Palace Museum in Beijing, June 11, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)
Ruins of large palace buildings, dating back to the early Ming Dynasty, have been uncovered at the Cining Palace square's Changxin gate. It is the first time wall base and building foundation ruins, from that period, have been found in the Forbidden City. They were unearthed at the gate's northwest side, before being resealed by the Palace Museum's archaeology institution on Saturday. According to the museum, archaeological workers found 30 centimeters of thick rammed earth from the Ming Dynasty, inside the 2.5-meter-wide, 5.4-meter-long trial pit. Such earth exists largely at the Cining Palace area. Shan Jixiang, the Palace Museum's curator, said the museum would show the ruins to the public by building glass floors in the future, to present a more multi-dimensional Palace Museum.
