Day #90: Forbidden City

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Most tourists in Beijing are Chinese, and they swarmed all over the Forbidden City, a reminder of how huge the country is. According to a sign at the entrance, they were anticipating 100000 visitors on the days I was there (I went twice in the 2 weeks I was in Beijing, with two different friends) and I would estimate only 1-2% were Western. Some of the tourists from other, more provincial parts of China have apparently not seen Westerners before, so we had a number of polite requests for photos, something I had not experienced since I was in Egypt.

As is often the case with major tourist attractions, the Forbidden City is hard work - it is so busy it is almost a crush to get through the opening gates, crowds everywhere, and quiet or shady areas are almost impossible to find. Moreover, in the muggy heat (both days I was there, the temperature was over 30 degrees) the central areas begin to feel like a monotonous toil, one giant traditional building after another - the City is huge, flat and symmetrical, in line with the prevailing philosophy of harmony of the time. The furnished rooms in the side courtyards offer little respite as there are crowds at every window - you can't actually go into the rooms.

In addition, the information boards are full of dry information - dates, size of building, basic usage - with little to bring the place to life (perhaps I should have tried the audioguide) so it was hard to get an impression of what it was actually like to live in the City, and the whole place felt a bit flat.

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