Forbidden Citys 1 and 2

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Our hotel was right beside the Forbidden City so it would have been a simple matter for us to visit it ourselves. However, we decided to see it on a guided tour as we thought that we might learn a little bit more about it this way. Alas, this was not to be the case as our guide had less than perfect English and the tour was conducted at a gallop as we were visiting other sites as well.

One particularly disappointing aspect of the tour was due to our own incorrect cultural assumptions. This was that we assumed that you would also visit and see the interior of at lest some of the buildings in the complex, as you would in a French castle or chateau, for example. Instead you got to see the outside of the buildings and the courtyards etc. These are impressive in themselves, as is the scale of the Forbidden city, but it felt a bit cold and clinical just looking at facades or peering over a rope into an interior.

The most interesting thing I saw were the boards giving you information on the buildings etc. These were all sponsored by American Express, that paragon of a capitalist institution. What would Chairman Mao make of that for progress, I thought.

Then again, some things change and some things do not. If you walk up from the Tiananman entrance of the Forbidden City you pass another gate in a wall remarkably like that of the Forbidden City. This is the entrance to the current official living quarters of the leaders of the Chinese ruling party. You will know you are near the gate as uniformed officers will bar your way and force you to walk past nearer the road. Apparently no one knows what it looks like inside and only selected people gain access and that excludes most of the Chinese population. It sounds remarkably like a modern version of the forbidden city. I wondered if at some time in the future tourists will be getting led on walkabouts there and shaking their heads in wonder at the sheer arrogance of it all.

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