Beijing and the Forbidden City

Beijing and the Forbidden City

Beijing is an incredible city. Well into the modern world they do suffer from the problems of developing countries with really bad pollution. It is a large city, traffic and bicycles everywhere. Being a capital city, it has everything from Opera, Symphonies, Internet access, to probably any sort of late night entertainment. With three ring roads, getting around was easy. But the history was magnificent from the Forbidden City to the Great Wall.

If you saw the movie "the Last Emperor", you got an incredible look at the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square, across the street from the entrance, is home to the monument to the Workers and Revolutionaries above.

This city within a city is truly huge with just under 10,000 rooms covering around 200 acres. You can spend days here seeing everything and as you go through, you begin to really appreciate the history, and grandeur that was once the dynasties of China.

In the Forbidden City, you see an enormous amount of treasures from the Bronze incense burner and crane below to the stone carved walkway for the emperor that was carved out of a single piece of stone.

The Yellow Throne is actually several thrones in the Temples and Palaces of the Forbidden City. Go back to the movie and take another look at the throne rooms there.

The Temple of Heaven is one of the more visited places in China where when we looked at the Heaven's Gate above, it seems that every corner you pass has a tremendous amout of history with it. On our second night in China, we went to see two performances from the Peking Opera and fortunately for me, they project the titles and text on a wall so that it makes it a whole lot more enjoyable to know what is going on. This was a scene from "Donating a Pearl on Rainbow Bridge.

So, from here, now On To The Great Wall of China.

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