One Year Away

Penny

We spent the greater part of a day strolling around Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Located in the center of Beijing, it is an impressive site and a great place to get away from the chaotic driving and incessant honking of the city streets.  Unfortunately, the Forbidden city does not provide you any escape from the hordes of people!

The Forbidden city, whose buildings and temples were mainly first built in 1420 (according to the
signs outside each of the structures and brought to you by American Express) housed the Ming and Qing dynasties.  According to our guide book, the emperors and their court would rarely stray out of the palace walls, but I cannot blame them!

The Forbidden City is beautiful and has some of amazing Chinese architecture.  With loads of flashy red and gold, all the buildings are incredible works of art.  Also, the Imperial Gardens within the walls of the city were wonderful and my personal favorite part of the city.  There were loads of ancient cypress trees that were so large that their branches had to be supported by metal beams.  It seems that this was where the emperor, the empress and his concubines frolicked.

A large section of the north eastern part of the Forbidden City is devoted to the history of the emperor’s concubines.  It gives visitors a look into their daily lives and provided insight into the complex and huge hierarchy that existed amongst the concubines with the empress being at the top of the pyramid, obviously!  Depending on their rank, the concubines would receive different amounts of rations such as gold and silk.

We have included some of the Forbidden City pictures in the China 2 album.  Just want to share some of the beauty with you!