Sloppy in Taiwan!: The Forbidden City

We talk a lot of "going big" in America. But the epic scale of palatial territory in Beijing is truly astounding. I can't think of anything that matches the Forbidden City in area or majesty. The Ming Dynasty era "downtown" area includes the likewise massive Beihai park which contains the famous "White Pagoda" and JingShan, which can be accessed through the North Gate and in which one can ascend to the top of the mountain to get a great view of the palace. It is a LONG walk to cover these grounds. My ankle has been bothering me every since I sprained it playing flag football in Taiwan. So we called it quits after the palace! Sorry!

The Forbidden palace was built by the Ming dynasty inn the early 400's. The Ming Dynasty is the same dynasty that completed the Great Wall to keep neighboring warlords including the Mongolians. The Dynasty was finally taken down when a general betrayed the last Ming emperor and opened the "Heaven Sea Gate" in Qinghuangdao, where the great wall meets the ocean. The last Ming emperor was said to have been very corrupt and he also executed the General's woman…that came back to bite him in the ass!

We've been here for almost 4 months and still haven't seen the Forbidden City. The reason is mainly because it is kind of a crap shoot weather or not there will be a good weekend or not togo. The weather combined with the pollution combined with personal exhaustion can create lots of obstacles. The summertime weather and pollution have been way better so far though. Today, the skies were blue, the temperature was hot but not too hot, there was little to no pollution, and we were ready to roll. So we hopped in a cab for about a 30 minute ride downtown to get a look at the palace.

So we got in a cab around 12 noon and drove downtown from our home in North-West Beijing.

We passed Behai park and arrived at the west gate of the Forbidden City.

For your edification.

To your left is the west gate. To your right is the massive moat that surrounds the entire palace.

The Forbidden City is absolutely massive. This is the outer wall of the West Gate

The "Noon Gate"

The Forbidden City is about 1600 years old. I'm not sure how old the bronze structures inside are…but in the palace museum there are bronze items with BC tags on them. So I assume they are pretty old.

Judy is so short!

There are two large grand entrances

Grain measuring device.

Dragon Turtle!

You can see the White Pagoda off in the distance, which is in BeiHai Park

This is the room for the emperor to rest in during ceremonies…it is located on the outer first gate

The place is truly massive

The largest contiguous stonework in the palace…it was said that they sprinkled water on the road on an icy day and drug it down the ice to get it to the palace.

"The" Bronze Lion

The tiles on the roof all over the place and in this section in particular are glazed.

This room was to receive visitors for affairs of state, located in the second gate near the center.

The building's location was determined with the help of "Feng Sui"

It is said that the earliest bronze in China was found in the Neolithic era. These items are placed in the palace museum. There should be a lot more bronze and jade and paintings in here, but Chaing Kai Check stole them and fled to Taiwan, where they reside in the Taiwanese "Place Museum". It's quite the affront to China