Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City

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On Tuesday, we went out towards Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City. We had thought that they were across the road from each other, rather than the Forbidden City being located behind Tian'anmen Square. What we thought was Tian'anmen Square was actually the People's Monument and the National Flag.

Tian'anmen Square was a large open space. At the front of it was several flags, and a gigantic portrait of Chairman Mao. I don't think I've ever seen a larger portrait of someone in my life. I don't think I'd want a portrait of myself shown like that! Behind the square was the Palace Museum. The Palace Museum is actually the formal name for the Forbidden City now. It reminded me of how the Skydome is now technically Rogers Centre.

Did you know that there were originally supposed to be about 10,000 rooms built in the Forbidden City between all the palaces? In the end, nearly 9,000 were built.

A lot of the structures in the Forbidden City looked the same to me. I'm sure that each one has its own purpose. I wish I was better educated on the Forbidden City, to have a larger appreciation of it. It was all quite beautiful. I liked the palace rooms, since we could see some of the artifacts.

After about an hour, the Forbidden City just felt like the Frozen City, so we decided to start our journey home. We explored the People's Monument on our way back.

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Photos

Tian'anmen Square
View from outside Tian'anmen Square, Beijing.

Off Limits!
Kate at the Forbidden City, Beijing.