Beijing, China (GMT +8)

(Originally written by Fuji on November 9, 2010)

It's early Tuesday morning, 0400, and I'm finishing up observations on my 1/2 day wandering around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (FC)... now also referred to by many as the Palace Museum.

Weather: Sunday, November 7, is actually a very clear, blue sky day and quite chilly. As the day progressed into early afternoon, it became overcast, very windy and much colder due to the wind chill. I was dressed warmly enough but, I could have used a wooly pull-on hat and some light gloves. Chinese vendors all over the place were selling all shapes and sizes of hats but, I just didn't feel like purchasing one.

The Shangri-la Hotel lies due East of the Forbidden City. I took a cab on a 20min ride and was dropped off at a taxi stand on the West side of Tiananmen Square right across from Mao Zedong's mausoleum. Cost me 20rmb and got out of the taxi right around 0930.

Side note: Unlike the cabbies in Shanghai who have meters you can clearly see, give you change and provide you with a receipt without asking, the Beijing cabbies tend not to do any of these consistently. In particular, they tend to round up your fare and do not offer change... kinda bugs me and I may start to become more demanding of their behavior.

Tiananmen Square is vast and I could not do it justice with my camera so, I took alot of photos and a few videos with my JVC camera. I strolled from Mao's mausoleum north towards the outermost southern facade of the FC with the late Chairman Mao Zedong's enlarged iconic photo over the center entrance of the wall.

Tons of folks all over the square which is flanked by immense governmental stone buildings on the East and West sides. Mao's mausoleum is at the southernmost part of the Tiananmen square's spacious parade ground. The line to go view Mao's body - which lies in state - was very long and I didn't queue up for the visit. Between Mao's mausoleum and the FC stands a very large obelisk manned by several Chinese army color guardsmen... this is the People's Monument which is also fronted by 2 tall very wide Simon boards which loop a variety of scenes of Chinese - very eyecatching. Spent some time video taping the western most board before moving on.

Just made my way towards the entrance of the FC. To get there you have to go under the 16 lane wide boulevard that separates the square from the FC. I'm pretty sure there are 2 access points to take, so I descended into the tunnel at the northwest corner and came up on the other side near a public toilet - which I was happy to see/use. Throughout the length of the tunnel there were lots of individual vendors peddling lots of touristy, flashing things.

Made my way east along the walkway to the entrance of the FC and walked over one of the moat bridges and went inside. The entrance to the FC is quite impressive and imposing. To be honest, I'd forgotten that there are 2 outer layers to the FC entering from the south entrance. Both areas/pavillions house quite a few vendors selling all types of souvenirs and food and made me feel kind of sad - mostly because I thought I was in the FC proper aka: Palace Museum.  Thankfully, I was not. In the 2nd pavillion on either side of the square, you can purchase tickets to enter into the actual FC for 40rmb/person. So, I queued up, purchased a ticket and entered the FC through the Meridian Gate - largest of the gates in the FC.

Once you pass through the Meridan Gate, you feel like you're in someplace special. Before you lies the Gate of Supreme Harmony fronted by a spacious courtyard that contains a moat with at least 5 bridges crossing the moat - Freckles was quite excited to be in the FC!

Before I continued my walk northward towards through the FC, I made time to climb up the western side of the Meridian gate to tour the museum of artifacts housed at the top. At the top of the stairs, you're issued a self-paced audio tour guide that is location sensitive inside the museum and narrates what you're looking at - pretty cool, exactly what's available to visitors of Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay. There's also a pretty impressive view looking south of the 2nd courtyard outside the FC. There's a small museum souvenir shop on top of Meridian Gate and I went in and bought some pins depicting artifacts located throughout the FC.
Finished my time on top of Meridian Gate and descended back into the courtyard and headed towards the Gate of Supreme Harmony. The Gate is fronted by 2 lions as you approach the gate, female on the left and male on the right, guarding the entrance. These particular lions are reproduced in all sizes and shapes and are quite popular throughout Beijing. From the top of the Gate of Supreme Harmony, one can look back at the Meridian Gate and really appreciate the massive size of the Gate.

Walking through the Gate of Supreme Harmony puts you into the 2nd courtyard that contains the most important of structures in the FC, the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The way you can tell how important a structure is is by the number of figures on the edges of the roof... the Hall of Supreme Harmony has 10/11, the most of any structure in the FC. This Hall was utilized by emperor's for important ceremonies and celebrations. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is flanked on each side by 2 large copper & iron vats. The vats were filled with water back in the day to be used to fight fires should any occur. Most tourists - including me and Freckles - touch the faces on the vats (note the shiny parts) for luck. :-)

Hmmm, this blogs getting very long too so, I'll just list most of the other gates/structures you can walk through or look in sequentially, some of what they were used for, before ending up in a striking rock and tree garden that eventually leads you out the northern entrance of the FC.  So, here goes my 'reader's digest' version of the remaining significant structures to view:
- View inside the Hall of Central Harmony. Relaxing place for emperors prior to attending important ceremonies or holding court.
- Hall of Preserved Harmony. Emperor's would change their clothing and hold banquets here.
- Gate of Heavenly Purity. North (front) gate of inner court.
- Palace of Heavenly Purity.  The living quarters of Emperors and was used for dealing with political matters.
- Hall of Union and Peace in front of Hall of Earthly Tranquility.
- Peaceful rock and tree garden area just before exiting. There are a few places to get refreshments here, take pictures and purchase souvenirs.

What a fascinating place to visit and tour! One could easily spend an entire day within the walls of the FC and still not hit up everything. I've been fortunate to have been able to visit the Forbidden City/Palace Museum twice in my life and would enjoying doing so again someday. Would be much more enjoyable with a running mate though....

Later!  (Pictures of the day coming in their own separate post!)