Visit Forbidden City (Imperial Palace) & Tian an Men

The overall view of the Forbidden City (Imperial Palace). Why call forbidden city because Palace is not a place for everyone to enter of course...hehehe
see all photos »

On Friday, the training ended early, only half day for Q&A session and some demo. So, Lingzhi, Dayong and another 2 colleagues brought me for a nice lunch. Ate Peking Roast duck again...hehehe...yummy and there was another local dish, with a very cute name, called Husband and wife dish. I was wondering what was it as I didn't see the menu. Well, it was cow lung and don't know liver or tongue cook with dried chili. Hmmm.... not my taste...hehehe.

After lunch, Lingzhi brought me to Tian an men assembly ground. IYou can pay a RMB10 for ticket to enter the Tian An Men exhibition hall and take an overview photo of the bigassemble field. We also visitedthe Forbidden City(zi jin cheng) or it's also called Imperial Palace [gu gong](RMB60 for entrance fee). The Palace is real Big! In fact I visited the Palace twice, once with Lingzhi on Friday, and the second time with LiJun and the German colleague (what is his name...hmmm ??? no idea now..:p)on Saturday. So, I have a full tour of the palace. Before visit China, I watched a chinese drama about life in Palace during Qing Dynasty(huan zhu ge ge), so when I visited the Imperial Palace, I'm quite familiar with those names and terms in the palace. There are different chambers for the King, Queens, the concubines etc, and there is also a well(zhen fei jin)where the King most loved lady being force to jump in and drowned in it. There is also palace of jeweleries(chang zhu dian).

Magnificent Palace and the modern city
see all photos »

There are a pair of Lion-like creature station at the entrance to the main chamber in the palace. These creature is Qi Lin, which is a holy animal, fierce and powerful, signify power and wealth. Li Jun asked me to guess which one is male and which is female. Arrr...huh..... The one with a globe under the paw is a male as male is to rule the world, while the one with many young Qi Ling under the paw is female, because female is to nurture the young.

Li Jun also told me that for for emperor, on every side ofdoor there will be 9 golden knobs in a row, total of 9 row, 81 knobs. Somehow it's believed that emperor is son of God and God live in the 9th level of sky (jiu chong tian). so everything for emperor is associate with '9'. Door for high rank minister will have 6 knobs in a row.

9 dragons on the wall. Dragon is son of God and emperor is symbolize as Dragon --> son of God
see all photos »

That evening, Li Jun called Lingzhi and asked us to meet in office and have dinner together, he wanted to give me a welcome meal...haaaa. So we had dinner at a nice restaurant............. yes, another Peking duck meal...hihihi. I like the drink made from a type of local fruit called "San zha", red in color like grape juice, sweet and sour in taste, very appetizing juice.