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Published: March 28th 2010
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Entrance to Forbidden City
This is the entrance to Forbidden City that is across from Tiananmen Square. It costs 50 RMB to enter in winter, and I think it is 70 RMB during high season. On our third day in Beijing, we finally got up early enough to visit the Forbidden City without being rushed. You could easily spend all day here, but I frankly don't have the patience for that. It is a stunning place to visit, but after a while it just all looks the same. It is huge. And impressive. And extremely well-preserved. Renovations are always ongoing and they are very well executed.
The central corridor of the Forbidden City is where government meetings took and place and important people were met. That's not where the emperor's actually lived and spent time smoking opium and having sex with their concubines. Those buildings are on either side of the central corridor, and there are a lot of them! Probably at least 25 on each side. Each room has its own individual building and some are connected so you wouldn't have to actually go outside to go into the next one, but many are not. They have their own small courtyards as well and are arranged in a sort of maze.
The Forbidden City was home to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the emperor's didn't leave this haven unless they absolutely had
Enis inside
This is just inside the gate before you reach the ticket booth. A lot of Chinese just go as far as the ticket booth rather than paying to go inside and see the actual 'city.' to. As I mentioned before, they were busy smoking opium and having copius sex, so why would they leave? It is called Forbidden City because after these dynasties ended, the palace was off limits for 500 years until someone got the bright idea to turn it into a museum. It wasn't called the Forbidden City when it was actually in use.
We spent about three hours here and then walked across the street to the Jingshan park. We paid the extortionists fee of 2RMB (about 30 cents) to enter and enjoyed a relaxing, uncrowded walk until we got to the top of a hill where there is a traditional style building used for a lookout over the Forbidden City. This was extremely crowded and if not for Enis, I would have avoided it altogether. When we got up there, we were taking photos and somebody pulled on my purse strap. Twice. I thought it was some rude Chinese person wanting me to move so they could take a photo (I refuse to move for them because most would not do it for me) and then I saw it was the Turkish guy Enis and I had met in Costa!
Statue
This statue is one of the first things you see inside. Security thought he was trying to steal my purse and they grabbed his hand and started to say something until they realized I knew him. He took a picture for me and Enis and then, thank God, we started walking down the hill and back to our hotel. It was a long walk back. The Forbidden City is over a kilometer long and then we had to walk past Tiananmen. Our hotel was on the other side. Thankfully the streets were not crowded.
I think we went to dinner at a Muslim restaurant with the Turkish people we met on this night. I can't remember exactly. The Muslim restaurant is actually a Uigher restaurant, and their language is very similar to Turkish. They come from far Western China north of Tibet. You may have heard of the riots in Urumqi a few months ago. That's where the Uighers come from and 6 were executed after those riots. Anyway, there food is very different from what we think of as Chinese food. They use a lot of spice, better quality meat, no pork, but a lot of lamb, and their bread is better as well. Had a good time with
As seen through the arches
Forbidden City has many huge courtyards like this that run through the center. them at dinner, then we went back to the Sakura Cafe in our hotel for drinks. Was a good night, even though I couldn't understand most of what was said. Enis translated for me though.
Off to Olympic Park tomorrow. Woo-hoo!
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