The Forbidden City – March 18

Mondays are China days here at the Cape of Dreams for the next couple of months. To see earlier posts, visit the Travels tab under the heading or click here.

We set out early on the morning of the 18th to attempt to get to the Forbidden City before the worst of the crowds. As before, I took bad pictures from the bus to show you the sites of Beijing.

Let’s not forget McDonald’s; it is taking over the world.

Not sure if you can make out all of the birdcages hanging here.

When we got off the bus, we had to walk several blocks to the Forbidden City. The streets were much quieter than normal at that early hour.

I am not sure what this was. Seeds? Tea? No time to stop and investigate. That is the problem of traveling with a group.

More birdcages with birds for sale. They must be popular pets in China.

This is the Eastern Gate of the Forbidden City. Here we crossed the moat and then walked around to the Southern Gate, which is the only entrance.

I remarked that it would be awesome to live in one of these houses along the moat, but Roy, our lead chaperon who had lived in China for many years informed me that the smell in summer is not pleasant. There was no smell while we were there, and you can see in this picture that the sky was clear and blue. Can you spot the bird?

The wall around the Forbidden City is impressive.

The Forbidden City is currently under restoration as it has been for many years. These are the East and West wings of the Meridian Gate. It would have been nice to see what they were like without scaffolding, but I suppose that the renovation is a necessary evil.

The courtyard in front of the Meridian Gate is where public floggings used to occur. I am glad that is no longer a common practice.

It is hard to imagine that we arrived at an early hour to avoid the crowds. There were people everywhere. I suppose that it was no worse than the crowds that one finds at many tourist attractions here in the United States, though.

One thing that interested me is that there were not many foreigners. Most of the tourists were Chinese. We did see a couple of other groups. There were a few that stood out to me such as the Buddhist monk, one crazy outfit, this woman in traditional garb and this tourist practicing her stunts. That would have been my cousin Lauren had she been there!

Everywhere we went in China, we saw people sweeping up. Their brooms were normally made of dried branches tied to a stick.

Traditionally, only the emperor could walk through the center doorway of the Meridian Gate, but now of course everyone does. Here is the view looking back through when there was a lull in the pedestrian traffic. Also, looking back at it from a distance.

Through the Meridian Gate is a plaza leading the the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

 

The Golden Stream passes through this plaza, hence the bridges.

In front of the Gate of Supreme Harmony there are two animals on guard. As is customary, the one of on the left when you are facing them is female and the one on the right is male. In Chinese culture, the left is more important, but lest you think that the female holds more importance, she would be on the emperor’s right as he comes out of the gate.

I took a non-traditional shot of the male lion, since everyone else was taking pictures only in the front. Here is the angle you rarely see.

This is the Gate of Supreme Harmony. Can you tell how in harmony we were just standing there in front of it? Utter bliss.

 

The Gate of Supreme Harmony as well as the Hall of Supreme Harmony which lays beyond it were restored before the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. The paint is still in pristine condition. You could tell from a distance how beautiful it was, but up close it was even more remarkable. Below is the ceiling of the gate.

There were not many signs giving information, something that I found at all of the attractions that we visited in both Beijing and Shanghai. At times there were be information seemingly at random. Here was one by the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

Through the Gate of Supreme Harmony is another courtyard with the Hall of Supreme Harmony on the other side.

The details of the carving and statues were amazing. It is sad to think that this is only a portion of what had been here. Many things were taken by Chang Kai Shek in order to preserve them from the communists. Many things that were left behind were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution. I am glad that some things remain intact for posterity.

I wish that I could afford an imperial roof. The charms or figurines were only allowed on official buildings and there are typically an odd number of them. You can read more about them here.

I would also like a few brass animals for my yard.

There were little fences around the brass animals, but many people were ignoring those and rubbing them for good luck. I followed suite, but Douglas preferred to take pictures.

 

Even the details in the “water” below the turtle was intricately designed.

On the northern side of this courtyard is the Hall of Supreme Harmony. It is not possible to enter, but you are permitted to stand at the door and take a picture. If you can reach the door, that is.

If you are able to fight through that crowd, this is what you will see. This is the Emperor’s throne.

Here are some details around the door.

Through this door on the left side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, you can see the Hall of Middle Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony on the right.

The Hall of Middle Harmony was a place of rest for the emperor in the midst of big ceremonies. The Hall of Preserving Harmony had another smaller throne and was also used for the imperial examination.

To the left you could see some of the side buildings and in the distance were other palaces. I wish we could have visited those as well.

The throne at the Hall of Preserving Harmony was not as interesting to the Chinese tourists, and we were able to go right up. Then, we got silly pretending to open the side doors.

You can tell that the renovation has not yet reached this area of the Forbidden City. The colors are faded and there was some damage.

Continuing on to the north there was another courtyard in front of the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The Palace of Heavenly Purity contains twenty seven beds from which the emperor could chose. The idea was to change his resting place every night so as to thwart would-be assassins.  A bridge spanned the distance between the two buildings and there were benches to the side.

The largest stone carving was in that courtyard.

From that courtyard we turned west to enter the women’s quarters. In between we found a highly rated bathroom. I did not take a picture inside, but I do not think that it merits four stars.

I loved the ceramic work in this area of the Forbidden City. I would love to have a wall like this in my house.

Other areas showed a lot more wear than the main parts of the Forbidden City.

It was interesting to see where the women spent their time.

From there we went to the imperial gardens. I would have loved to spend more time there.

The stones were amazing and the trees were hundreds of years old.

Even the walkways were beautiful.

The threshold of this door was taken out by the last emperor so that he could ride his bike in and out easily. Hearing that made me want to re-watch the movie The Last Emperor.

This elephant is kneeling to show that even the mightiest of the beasts must kneel before the emperor. Douglas took the picture from behind this time. He is learning from me.

Finally, we exited the Forbidden City too soon. I would have liked to spend more time there, but I was getting hungry.

Here is the outside view from the north.

I hope that you enjoyed our visit to the Forbidden City. This post is a little later than normal because it took much longer to write than I expected. I will leave you with some panoramic views from the Forbidden City.

Happy Travels!