The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government. That's what Wikipedia has to say about it anyway. No longer is Beijing's Forbidden City somewhere you just have to read about, or even spend a fair amount of money traveling to China to see, because now there is The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time a virtual Forbidden City.
The project began in 2005 as joint effort between IBM and the Palace Museum. It features over 800 interactive, three-dimensional representations of buildings as well as cultural artifacts that can be explored as the avatar of your choice dressed in Qing dynasty styled clothing.
It seems that this cultural heritage project is primarily a show of technology exchange and friendship towards China from IBM rather than any kind of profit-seeking venture, but it would be interesting to know how much has been invested in it to date and what the on-going costs may be.
To read about a couple of others' opinions on the virtual Forbidden City, hop on over to Imagethief and Ogilvy Digital Watch.
