The Forbidden City - by Steff

The Chengs at the Tiananmen Gate - the entrance to the Forbidden City
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The Forbidden City

This massive structure of buildings entwining together forms one great big palace. In fact this palace is the world’s largest surviving palatial compound. These buildings have survived since 1644, but the original palace was built in 1406. Due to a fire, the future emperor, Hong Xi, one million laborers, and one hundred thousand artisans had to rebuild this one km long and three-quarter km wide grounds of intricate mazes of gardens, buildings and collected treasures. The 10 meter high wall surrounding the palace grounds are made to be seemingly impossible to invade. This wall is also ringed by a moat, 53 meters across and has four turret towers to keep a watchful eye out. This city would sure be well protected. I would not like to be a part of an invading army.

We walked around the grounds feeling like little ants.

Some of the many grand buildings inside the Forbidden City complex
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We walked around the grounds feeling like little ants. The seemingly similar big buildings were right, left and center. I think that these architects liked everything symmetric and in the same style. It looked like you saw the same thing over and over again when you walked through a door. One thing you saw a lot of was these big doors that had brass knobs sticking out of them. I walked through one of these doors and thought “oh, didn’t we go here already?” It was really like a maze. Good thing my dad was with us all the time. My dad has a GPS navigation system in his head. Unfortunately, most of the main buildings were under renovation for the Olympics and had mesh covering over them, so that was a little disappointing not to see the dragon throne room and other main buildings. Our family has a joke that in China, when they renovate a relic, they always want it to turn out “better than new”, and unfortunately they do not get that we want to see how it was like when it was original. Although some of the colours were bright, newly painted and didn’t fit in with the faded paint, all looked beautiful and very Asian like. The reds, yellows, dark blue, and peacock greens all looked royal in a unique style.

The stone that went ice skating
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Did you know that the biggest piece of stone slab used in the Palace was 16.6 meters long, 3 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick? Wow! It took about 20,000 laborers to move it from Fangshan to the building site. How they managed that, you might ask. Well, first of all they did this during the winter and second they dug water wells every 50 meters. Thus, pouring water over the freezing cold road, an ice rink was formed. Who wants to go skating? The rock sure did and the 250 ton rock was still in one piece after it had been pulled along the ice road for 50 km. over 28 days. This stone slab now has a carving of 9 dragons on it, and has smaller versions of it scattered around the grounds. The story behind this rock was one of the most interesting parts of the Forbidden City for me.

Starbucks available inside the Forbidden City
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Having explored this massive complex for 3 hours or so, we were tired. We were exhausted. We wanted a rest. At just the right time we spied taking a picture of a Starbucks coffee cup. We wondered where he got it. After being pointed in the direction of the unmarked famous coffee shop, lo and behold, it lay before us. In the Forbidden City there was a Starbucks Coffee! We were so shocked and so pleased at our fortune, that we bought an expensive lunch. Karsten and I had Frappachinos in this 4٥ cold weather. A hot drink would have been better but we chose a frap because it’s been 8 months since we’ve enjoyed one.

Some of the intricate artwork on the newly restored buildings - better than new!
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Another laugh in the Forbidden City was a star rated bathroom. There was a 4 star bathroom with Mr. Noodles packages that you could buy and eat after your bathroom break. That was quite funny.

After roaming around the city, we ended this day with the Beijing Acrobatic Show. Beijing is famous for its acrobats. The ones that we watched were from about age 8 to late teens. Some of them were doing unicycle acts, some were ring jumping, some were doing gymnastics, and some were just balancing on top of each other. The girls on 8 feet high unicycles were balancing bowls on top of their heads. They were also putting some bowls on their feet and kicking them up onto their heads as well as onto theheads of others. A group of 8 boys were running up vertical poles and doing backwards flips onto the opposite pole. They were monkeys up there. There were lots of other acts that were just amazing. All of the participants were doing their own thing and all were fantastic.  

I will always remember Beijing for the Acrobats and their amazing acts and the Forbidden City. Despite the cold, this was one great day!