Beijing, China-Forbidden City

Today's post is the 3rd in a series about Beijing. This particular post is all about the Forbidden City.  It's actually a city-within-a-city, as it's located in the very heart of Beijing...right near Tianamin Square.  The Forbidden City was the imperial residence of the Ming and Qing dynasties, from about the 1400s. 

To give you an idea of the size, the complex has about 70 structures and more than 9,000 rooms.  Now, I didn't get a chance to see all of these...but enough to get an idea of what this must have been like.  It is completely surrounded by a high wall and encircled by a decent moat.

The following is a picture of the main gate (Tianamen Gate).  This picture was taken just across the street, in Tianamen Square.  Safety tip: If you visit Tianamen Square, and you look even remotely caucasian - you will be accosted by locals trying to sell you souvenirs and post cards.  I'm deadly serious.  The other scam, will be young people trying to "practice" their English with you, in conversation.  It ultimately leads to them wanting to show you an art exhibit - and then trying to sell you that art.  Don't fall for it.  It's not a time to be overly polite.  Just move along.  Seriously.  We now return you to our regularly scheduled program: 

 

Inside the main gate, you'll find a series of "gates" and courtyards...massive in size.  This is a picture of the gate to Tanheidan Hall. Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color inside the Forbidden City. As you can see form the previous pictures, Roofs are built with yellow-glazed tiles.

In front of Taihemen Gate (also known as Gate of Supreme Harmony), I found one of several statues of lions.  The craftsmanship applied to each of these scultptures is amazing.  I could have spent all my time just taking pictures of these lions:

I couldn't imagine how long it took to make...but I guess nothing was too good for the Imperial family.  I rented the English-language audio tour, that indicated a million workers (including 100,000 artists) were driven into the long-term hard labor, to work on the Forbidden City. Here's another lion - from an entirely different part of the city.  Again, the level of detail on it was amazing:

Inside the halls, you would find the same exquisite level of detail:

Inside Taihedian Hall (aka Hall of Supreme Harmony)

I guess we could follow this same theme.  In the middle of the steps, leading up to each gate, you'll find carved steps.  To see these in more detail (after looking at the picture), go out an rent The Last Emperor - a movie about the very last Emporer to live within the Forbidden City, prior to Japanese occupation of most of China in WWII.  Here's a picture of some of the carved steps:

The imperial family didn't just walk through the Forbidden City - they rode in style.  In one part of the tour, I was able to get pretty close to one of the imperial carts.  I can just imagine the poor laborers having to carry the entire imperial family around in one of these:

An update:  Since originally visiting the Forbidden City, things have changed a little.  I returned there with my wife and was shocked to see how many people were touring the City now.  It looks like a massive number of people from the Chinese countryside are visiting Beijing - just like tourists in our country.  As you'll see in a later post, it's really crowded.  Nothing like you see in this post's pictures.  At least I recorded it when there was a chance to see everything...