Forbidden City

Beijing, fabled city from antiquity, end of the fabled silk road. Dramatic mountain vistas to vast rolling valleys. The fabled antiquities are now nestled amongst very large skyscrapers, thousands of cars and the local McDonalds. Nevertheless, there are still hundreds of famous places to visit in China and I believe we hit the biggest and the best. Nestled in the center of Beijing is the Forbidden City, location of the Imperial Palace for more than 500 years and the largest palace complex in the world. Officially, it was the home of the Ming and Quing Dynasties and was actually the political center of China until 1912. And why is it called the “forbidden city”? Because no one was allowed in OR out without the permission of the emperor.
The palace is huge and while it is laid out in squares and rectangles, making one think it would be easy to keep track of where one is, there are actually so many doors and gardens and small buildings and gates, that it is totally easy to get lost. The palace structures are stunning. The colors are vibrant and the details in the paintings unbelievable. There are a lot of stone carvings throughout the complex, on the stairs, bridges and columns. All of the walls are red, roofs are yellows, the gate carvings do vary but I’m afraid the sheer quantity of them guarantees confusion. The halls and buildings were given fanciful names including the “Hall of Central Harmony”, the “Hall of Preserving Harmony” and the “Palace of Heavenly Purity” – whatever that might mean. The stone work on bridges and buildings must have kept thousands of stone masons at work for years.