A photographer who carried out a photo shoot of an almost-naked model at the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace in the heart of Beijing, has been heavily slammed by Chinese citizens on social media.
Many internet users said 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, The Beijing News reported.
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.
"I was only doing my work and did not affect anyone," the South China Morning Post quoted Wang as saying.
Officials at the Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum were yet to comment and it is not clear if Wang was given approval to carry out the photo shoot.
An expert on tourism was quoted as saying that if the photographer was allowed to take the photographs he should have done so when the museum was closed to the public.
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 world heritage site in 1987 for its largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
