I have watched many dramas, and this is by far my favourite. In fact, I love it so much that I've already watched it 5 times and would even consider watching it again in the future.

The acting is superb, every single role is played amazingly by the actors and actresses, particularly Sun Li who plays the lead role of Zhen Huan. When she laughs, you'll laugh, when she cries, you'll ball your eyes out. Even the 'bad' characters are played amazingly, you'll really get to hate them, but you'll even feel a bit sorry for them.

The storyline is very well written, just the right amount of drama, romance, relationships, revenge and sadness, and more. Each time I rewatch the drama, I find out more and more that I didn't notice the previous times. You can tell how much research went into this drama, if anything you'll learn a lot of history while watching. Obviously not all of the characters existed and are only based on a few historical figures, but you really get to learn the ways of life as someone living in the Imperial Palace.

Overall, I'm very bad at writing reviews so I'll stop now, but I would highly recommend this drama to anyone and everyone.