Day 15: An Inside Look at the Forbidden City

Friday, September 30, 2016

I'm not going to give you a long history lesson on the Forbidden City. Many others have done it better than I can. Suffice it to say, "The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty--the years 1420 to 1912." That's a heck of a long time to keep using the same residence!

My first introduction to the Forbidden City was the 1987 film, "The Last Emperor," about the life of Puyi who ascended to the throne at the age of two until he was later imprisoned by the Communist Party of China. I'm sure a lot of the film is Hollywood fantasy, but it made a big impact on me at the time, and I dreamed of visiting the Forbidden City someday.

One of my Facebook friends suggested several other films, perhaps more accurate, about the Forbidden City: A documentary called The Forbidden City of Ming & Qing Dynasties (1368-1912); Turandot 1 in the Forbidden City of Peking, China; Curse of the Golden Flower; and The Banquet. I haven't had a chance to watch them yet, but I invite you to also.

October 1-7 was Golden Week, the weeklong national holiday in which a record number of 589 million Chinese all took vacation at the same time. 80,000 tickets are sold every day for the Palace Museum (3/4 online), and they sold out in less than two hours during Golden Week. The ticket windows open at 8:30 a.m. every day, but the line-up starts long before that. Somehow I got lucky and arrived on foot at 8:00, at the side entrance. No one was in line yet because China's leader Xi Jinping was attending that day, so the guard held everyone back without explanation of when they would open the numerous ticket windows. Thankfully, at 8:30 he opened the gate. I ran like an Olympian and arrived second in my line, behind a family whose little girl had the same empress headdress as I did.

I'm happy I got advice beforehand from my friend Hash at the hostel, to go early, take one of the side entrances, start upstairs to get an overall view of the palaces, and walk along the perimeter as much as possible to avoid the masses in the middle. Actually, it didn't seem as crowded as I'd anticipated. And I'm a people watcher, so I had great fun photographing other tourists, and taking selfies with my empress headdress.

After 8 hours of walking and exploring, I exited and crossed the street to Jingshan Park to get a hilltop temple view of the entire Forbidden City. I just learned that this artificial hill was made from the dirt dug out of the moat around the Forbidden City. Too bad Beijing is too smoggy to get decent photos. After all those steps up and down, I was ready to take the subway back to the hostel and hang with my international friends.

Postcard view from outside the walls.

Soldiers march while we wait for the guard to open the gate.

The race for tickets is on! Look out, here comes the American!

Twinsies! Waiting in line for tickets to the Palace Museum (Forbidden City)

Having fun with Photoshop.

Let me try another empress outfit.

Nice view from above

Okay, so I was wearing a sun dress to the Forbidden City. Probably not the most appropriate, but it was actually warm out. 

Sometimes I get to learn more English in foreign countries. I guess I'm a "visit person."

Just like in the movies, only more amazing in person.

There are also museums on ancient art from India.

An ancient goddess

In case you didn't recognize him, this is Buddha's head. Remember, before Communism, most Chinese were Buddhists.

View from above, looking down on the ticket windows and entry.

The ceiling of one of the temples.

Another museum in a temple.

A walk on the wall surrounding the Forbidden City. Notice the smog.

Looking down on the moat that surrounds the walled city.

A corner guard tower.

Archaeological work is ongoing.

Another interior of a museum/temple. So majestic.

Some minor temples, like this one, had no tourists at all.

Renovation work in progress.

Young and old visit the Forbidden City. I'm the youngster in this photo.

Photographing the temple interior.

I didn't feel the interiors were that exciting today, but I would have loved to see them back in the time of the emperors.

You could pay to dress up like an emperor or empress.

Or you could pose with someone who did.

Styles have changed a lot in China since the days of the emperors.

Serenity garden was where I chose to sprinkle some of my daughter Maya's ashes. She always loved flowers.

I offered to take a picture of this woman and her husband together with their camera. Then she asked for a photo with me. Sometimes it's fun being a minority celebrity.

Some of these buildings were originally the rooms of the emperor's concubines.

Since I haven't had the opportunity to see the Terra Cotta Army yet, I was glad to see a few pieces. That was my grandma's favorite thing in China. I got a 10-year visa, so I'll be back.

This 5-star toilet stunk just as bad an the unrated ones.

This girl struck such a cute pose, I couldn't resist stealing a shot.

Finally, the exit!!

After 8 hours of walking around the Forbidden City, I decided to climb to the top of Jingshan Park for one last view.

Too smoggy to see it all, but this gives you an idea of the immensity of the Forbidden City with its 9,999 rooms. The number nine is a lucky number in China.

More temples on the opposite side of the park.