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Published: April 5th 2010
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Wendy and Sun (Sophia)
Here we are at the entry
to the Forbidden City. April 4, 2010
Today we (Danbo, Sun and I) went to The Forbidden City and to Tiananmen Square. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Wikipedia has an extensive entry on “The Forbidden City”. Here are some fun facts about the Forbidden City:
1. The Forbidden City occupies 720,000 square meters (7,747,200 square feet / 180 acres). The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul measures 700,000 square meters; the Vatican measures 440,000 square meters; and the Kremlin measures 275,000 square meters.
2. There are 9,999 rooms in this series of exquisite palaces inside the City. Nine is a lucky number for the Chinese. (Some books quote 8886 rooms — but this does not include antechambers.)
3. The walls are 32 feet high (10 meters). The surrounding drainage moat is 165 feet wide (50 meters). The main part of the city was constructed over 14 years (1407-1420) using 200,000 laborers. Building materials were shipped over thousands of miles from all parts of China using the network of canals constructed in the 6th and 7th centuries.
4. All of the buildings are made from painted wood. To deal with the fire risk, giant bronze cauldrons filled with water were placed
Sculpture of Rocks
This mound of rocks is found in the Palace gardens. at intervals throughout the Palace.
5. A small procession of animal figures is found on every roof top corner. The people of the Qing Dynasty believed that the corners of building were very susceptible to lightening strikes. They thought that the presence of these creatures would ward off any such undesired events.
6. At the end of the 18th century approximately 9000 people lived within the Forbidden City, composed of guards, servants, eunuchs, concubines, civil servants and the Royal Family.
7. The inner sanctum rooms were forbidden to women except to the Empress on her wedding day.
8. The tradition of castrating male servants dates back over two thousand years. The Qing Dynasty started with 9000 eunuchs, reducing to about 1500 in 1908. Their testicles were mummified and stored in jars, to be buried with them after their death. (How awful!)
9. Emperors were entitled to several wives and many concubines. (Qianlong had two official wives and 29 concubines). Concubines were well-educated women selected from the best Manchu families. Nightly, the Emperor would decide which concubine would visit him that evening. She would then be stripped, bathed and depilated before being carried to his chamber.
Two Trees
These are very famous trees in the garden that grew together over time. The number of times a concubine was chosen secured her social standing.
10. Manchu women did not bind their feet, but wore shoes mounted on six- to eight-inch platforms, giving them the tottering gait considered seductive. (It seems like we women have always been slaves to fashion!) :P
The City was amazingly beautiful. . .ornate room after ornate room, seemingly stretching on forever. And the gardens, even though they were mostly still bare, were lovely and peaceful. All the artwork and sculptures within the palaces were incredibly well preserved. I’ve included a hand full of pictures in this entry, but I will eventually put all the photos I took in a photo album on Snapfish for everyone to look at. I’ve put explanations with the photos. I may have gotten a couple of the palaces mixed up, but you’ll still get an idea of how beautiful the city is.
After seeing the Forbidden City we toured Tiananmen Square and a nearby shopping district. Because of the holiday (Memory Day. . .like our Memorial Day) there were many groups of soldiers marching about on display. We got back to our hotel utterly exhausted, but very happy from our
Bronze Sculpture
I'm not sure what the orginal purpose of this was. . .perhaps a lantern? adventures.
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Crystal
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Pictures
It looks like you are having a wonderful time. I'll be glad to see all your pictures when you get home. I'll have to have some on my computer for my puzzles and to send on to Shirley to enjoy. She loves to hear about you in China. We are doing ok here. Love, Mom