The Forbidden City
Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven
November 5, 2017
The Great Wall!
December 11, 2017
A bit late on this final Beijing post, mostly due to work and family, a good excuse overall. The final leg of Cameron’s birthday trip took us to the Forbidden City. This actually took place just AFTER the Tiantan tour. Both can easily be seen in a single day if you’re not taking selfies every single turn.
Once we left Tiantan, we had lunch, the “Beijing Kao YEAH!” post on Twitter, then if was off to Tiananmen Square (天安门广场). Can’t say what that giant flower thing was, since it wasn’t there last time I went, but we photographed it nonetheless.
Tiananmen itself was its normal busy place, despite the fact that President Donald Trump would be here just a few days later after we left.
Once we walked around for a bit, albeit less than 20 minutes (it’s a flat square of cement, think about it.) we headed to 故宫 (GuGong) or the Forbidden City. As expected for a weekend, it was BUSY! The crowds moving around the place were, as most crowds in China are, belligerent and numerous.
The Forbidden City was the home of dynastic rulers from the Ming to the Qing, having been constructed as early as 1406 CE. Zhu Di, when he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, had it constructed using over 1 million workers. Since 1925, however, it’s been run as the Palace Museum, in an effort to keep the Ming & Qing Dynasties collections of art & possessions.
Once we got in, we headed straight for a map.
The main courtyard is quite large, as you can see from the pics leading to the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Once inside though, it’ll take at least half a day to navigate the whole place, just looking at the surroundings and getting in a few candid shots.
Inside the halls, you’ll find not only some of the original, as well as imitation furniture from the dynastic period, you’ll see both renovated and original art from the eras as well, well worth seeing when you’re visiting the Forbidden City.
Bringing in kids is a whole new level of tourism. As you already know, the courtyards are large. Plenty of space to run. However, the places where a 6 year old SHOULD see, as in the temples, rooms, and whatnot proves to be more difficult as the other adult tourists tend to be a bit pushy trying to get their own pics that you can find all over online already (including mine).
Beware the selfie-sticks.
Afterwards, it was back to the hotel again, and a nice long needed rest for the next day’s trip, the Great Wall!
