The Forbidden City

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In the center of Beijing is the Tian'amen Square and north of it the Forbidden City. The whole layout of these is huge, somhow resembling the vatsness of the Chinese empire. On foot you walk a whole day just to explore all the gates, halls, gardens, and courtyards. Like this you can experience the Chinese peopels' taste for monumetal buildings very genuinly.
The Forbidden City has several nested courtyards. So you are walking from gate to gate to the innermost courtyard. Here you find three halls, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Medium Harmony, and the Hall of Protective Harmony. These are for the official purposes of the emperor. Further north there are another three halls for the private porpose of the emperor. In this part are also some gardens with little temples. A nice vitual tour can be found here.

Some of the buildings in the Forbidden City still have there original interior. Others are housing museums. One museum I went to was the clocks and watch collection of the emperors. Most of the clocks are from Europe, actually. They are presents from European monarchs.

After my visit to the Forbidden City I walked out the northern gate which leads to Jingshan Park. In this park all the dirt from the digging of the palace moat has been piled up to a big mound. Thus, I got a nice view over the place I'd just been to.

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Photos

Tian'amen Gate
At the north end of Tian'amen Square is Tian'amen Gate leading to the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City
View from Jingshan Park south over the Forbidden City.

Hall of Supreme Harmony
This is where the emperor reigned for many centuries. The middle part of the stairway is a stone carving showing dragons.

Ming Bombs
In front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony there are these strange vessels. I was told they were once used to produce incence, some sort of good smelling smoke.

Panetary Clock
The halls of Forbidden City also house some museums. One shows clocks and watches the emperors collected. Many are presents from foreign contries. This Planetary Clock is from England.