Forbidden City

The flight to Beijing from Bangkok was unbearable according to mom and Jim.  I was too busy chatting up the Thais sitting next to me to notice the smoke that lingered in the seat covers, the tight seating arrangements, or the poor food and in-flight service on our flight.  We arrived Beijing at 1 or 2 in the morning and didn’t get to bed until almost 3 am…

That same morning, I woke up to the Beijing City view.  Beijing from the 41^st floor of our hotel was vast, developed, spread-out, metropolitan, and beautiful.  The blue sky, white clouds, and clear and almost breathable City air was a stark contrast from what I had been hearing…  I admired Beijing just from taking in the City view from our room.

The Forbidden City or the Palace Museum was our first stop after our long trip.  Our not-so-good 200RMB English tour guide that we hired right outside of the Palace (approximately $30) walked us through with some brief description of the one third of the Palace that’s open to public.  The Forbidden City was built in the 1400s by the Ming Dynasty, which was followed by numerous rebuilds after multiple fires and the Cultural Revolution.  The Palace is approximately 730,000 square meters with 9,000 plus living quarters which housed the Emperor, Empress, Concubines, Eunuchs, Maid-of-honors (concubine-to-be) and service staff.  The guide told us that if a baby was born and was allowed to change one living quarter a day, by the time the baby completes sleeping in all the rooms in the Forbidden City, the baby will be almost a grown 27-year old adult.  People that came into the Forbidden City to serve the Emperor were not allowed to leave the City without permission.  As a matter of fact, most of them ended up dying in the Forbidden City without ever stepping foot outside of the Palace once they had entered.

The walk from the North of the Palace to the South with frequent stops and wandering into various exhibits took us about four hours.  The rich history, imperial architecture, strictly-followed rites and ceremonies, countless number of symbols and customs, and the ‘recently’ excavated treasuries were impossible to take-in with one walking tour…

The Forbidden City is enormous, mysterious, and intriguing not just because of the physical buildings and treasures that are presented in the center of Beijing City, but its history during the rule of each of the Emperors under their rein.  What prompted the worship and the ruling of one man that comes with such a lavish and exaggerated lifestyle and power?  Was it better to live outside with the City with the savages of real life or was it more comfortable living within the confines of the Forbidden City with a possible luxurious life for generations?  I wondered while walking under the yellow golden roofs while snapping pictures…  Why? How? When? Who? And what happened?  I wish I knew more about Chinese history…

We were herded out, in large numbers, at the South end of the Palace by the security police.  On the South entrance of the Palace hangs a large Mao picture with two Chinese sentences to the sides “Long live the People’s Republic of China” and “Long Live the Great Unity of the World's Citizens”.  The twelve-lane Chang-an Avenue (not counting the bike lane on each side) that divided the Tiananmen and Tiananmen Square was already filled with traffic…  It took another 30 minutes walk for us to hail a willing cab to take us back to our hotel.   Despite the noise of the horn, the sea of people and cars, and the occasional cussing of the taxi driver, the grand and peaceful Forbidden City sits unfazed in the center of the modern and buzzing Beijing.