<P> By October, the Manchus had achieved supremacy in northern China, and a ceremony was held at the Forbidden City to proclaim the young Shunzhi Emperor as ruler of all China under the Qing dynasty . The Qing rulers changed the names on some of the principal buildings, to emphasise "Harmony" rather than "Supremacy", made the name plates bilingual (Chinese and Manchu), and introduced Shamanist elements to the palace . </P> <P> In 1860, during the Second Opium War, Anglo - French forces took control of the Forbidden City and occupied it until the end of the war . In 1900 Empress Dowager Cixi fled from the Forbidden City during the Boxer Rebellion, leaving it to be occupied by forces of the treaty powers until the following year . </P> <P> After being the home of 24 emperors--14 of the Ming dynasty and 10 of the Qing dynasty--the Forbidden City ceased being the political centre of China in 1912 with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China . Under an agreement with the new Republic of China government, Puyi remained in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was given over to public use, until he was evicted after a coup in 1924 . The Palace Museum was then established in the Forbidden City in 1925 . In 1933, the Japanese invasion of China forced the evacuation of the national treasures in the Forbidden City . Part of the collection was returned at the end of World War II, but the other part was evacuated to Taiwan in 1948 under orders by Chiang Kai - shek, whose Kuomintang was losing the Chinese Civil War . This relatively small but high quality collection was kept in storage until 1965, when it again became public, as the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei . </P> <P> After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, some damage was done to the Forbidden City as the country was swept up in revolutionary zeal . During the Cultural Revolution, however, further destruction was prevented when Premier Zhou Enlai sent an army battalion to guard the city . </P>

When was the forbidden city opened to the public