Water Wells in the Forbidden City

According to statistics, there are 72 palaces in the Forbidden City with water wells, and each palace is equipped with one or two wells. In total, there are more than 100 wells in the Forbidden City. Above the well, there is usually an open-air pavilion. The well water is groundwater. The water is used for firefighting, daily cleaning and gardening. At first, it was also used as drinking water. However, after poisoning incident, no one drank the water from the well anymore.
 

Originally, there was a pavilion above most of these water wells. Usually, there is a hole in the middle of the pavilion roof. Why did the craftsmen make the pavilion like this? This is because the ancients believed that if the well water was not exposed to sunlight for a long time, the water quality would become bad and harmful to people's health, so the craftsmen opened a hole for the water to meet the sun. In addition, the opening at the top of the pavilion helped people see the water in the well clearly. Knowing the depth of the water made it easier to get it. Last but not least, sometimes long poles were needed to fetch water if the water level was low, and pavilion roof opening was conducive to the long pole to go up and down.
 

They were built mainly for drinking water at the beginning. But since the Qing dynasty (1636 - 1912), all the people who lived in the Forbidden City, including royal families and servants, did not drink well water anymore. What happened? In the Ming emperor Zhu Jianshen's reign ( 1464 - 1487), the royal concubine Wan Zhener once poisoned the well water. Since then, the palace people did not dare to drink the well water anymore because the water wells were interlinked. In addition to poisoning, there is another cause of dirty well water, that is, people often jump into the well to commit suicide. The body was immersed in well water so no one dared to drink it anymore. For example, the emperor Guangxu's beloved concubine Zhen was drowned in a well in the Forbidden City.
 

The palaces in the Forbidden City are mostly built of wood, which is easy to catch fires, so people dug water wells near the palaces to provide water for firefighting. According to historical records, from the beginning of the Yongle period (1403 - 1424) in the Ming dynasty to the abdication of the Xuantong emperor (1909 - 19121) in the Qing dynasty, there were more than 100 big and small fires in the Forbidden City.
 

In addition, these water wells can also provide water for daily cleaning and gardening. For example, people can get water from the wells when they clean the palace, irrigate the garden and wash clothes.
 

The drinking water in the Forbidden City was fetched from Yuquan Mountain, about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Forbidden City. The water is natural running water, clear and sweet, and the most important safe and pollution-free. Fixed personnel were arranged to protect the water source. Every day, certain eunuchs were sent to collect water from Yuquan Mountain and transport it back to the Forbidden City. After, it is distributed to the people according to their ranks.

In addition, during the winter, ice cubes would be collected from the suburbs of Beijing and Forbidden City moat and store them in the imperial ice house. The melted ice water would also be used as a source of drinking water. But because of the relatively small amount of ice water and the high cost, only the emperor, a few favored concubines and princes were entitled to enjoy it. In the hot summer, drinking the cool water was a particularly pleasant thing.

 Further Reading:
Three Chimneys in the Forbidden City 
Are there toilets in the Forbidden City?