A photoshoot of a naked model, which was carried out at the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace in the heart of Beijing, China has spread viral.
According to the surveillance footage, photographer Wang Dong and his crew were running into the palace before everyone else (who were, at the time, fully clothed). Around 20 minutes later, security guards spotted them taking the raunchy photos and asked them to stop.
Reacting to the issue, the photographer Wang Dong said that, the intention behind the photo shoot is to promote the artwork and specified that, he had no such intention of ruining the culture.
The palace museum officials said that, “the staff is not aware of the photo shoot, they did not even give any permission for it.”
On the other side, Many internet users opined that, the shoot was shameless and had profaned historical relics, after a number of pictures showing the naked woman posing in front of white marble handrails and sitting on the head of a marble dragon circulated on the internet
One of the photographs, posted by the photographer Wang Dong on his social media account, showed the woman leaning on a handrail in front of a hall with crowds of tourists nearby.
Forbidden City was the imperial palace for successive Chinese monarchies for over 500 years and it is one of China's biggest tourist attractions. It was listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site in 1987 for its largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
By Phani
