VWN Image Gallery: In Pictures: Virtual Forbidden City

The City

This world first opened to the general public in mid October 2008. It is an educational world, created by IBM at some length. A 1:1 scale replica of the Chinese ?forbidden city? located in Beijing, which served China for centuries as an exclusive realm for the nation's emperors.

To create it, IBM spent more than three years working with Chinese officials and the Palace Museum to construct an interactive, animated replica of the 178-acre walled fortress in the Dongcheng District.

Emphasis is on accurate detail, for it is a cultural replica, intended to preserve as closely as possible, the original structure and the way of life within it.

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