Take Me Down To The Forbidden City

Entering the Forbidden City through the south gate

I don't know if you read yesterday's blog post, when I said that China was not what I was expecting. I was expecting wall-to-wall people, packed in elbow-to-elbow, a cacophanous tsunami of humanity, but instead, the streets were relatively calm and quiet and the pace was relaxed. Well, that was yesterday. Today's visit to the Forbidden City was the China I was expecting.

To get to the Forbidden City, you first walk through the enormous Tiananmen Square. "Tiananmen" literally translates to "Gate of Heavenly Peace."  Seriously.

The ocean of humanity (which, as you know, is more than a mere "sea" of humanity) was overwhelming.

Turns out, the waves of humanity were there to visit the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.  People wait in line for hours to pay respects.  And no fast pass available!

Here I am, just outside of the Forbidden City, with Chairman Mao looking over my shoulder.  Will the Forbidden City be forbidden to me?

People lined up to get into the Forbidden City because, well, if you tell someone something is "forbidden," they only want it more:

Always time to do some modeling under the watchful eyes of Chairman Mao:

The Forbidden City is forbidden no longer!  I am in!

China has a population of 1.2 billion.  And, today, 1.1 billion of them either are in Tiananmen Square or the Forbidden City.

Lots of families.  Lots of children.

And people in period costumes!  Just like a real tourist attraction would be stateside:

You can have your one child dress up like an Emperor or Empress:

And do things like fly virtually over the Forbidden City:

Back into the light:

And into the Hall of Clocks:

I took a bunch of pictures in here, like of this carriage clock:

But it was really dark and you weren't allowed to do flash photography, so I picked out a few clock pictures from inside the Hall of Clocks that were not complete blurs, such as this:

Or this:

Or this:

Or the rhinoceros clock:

Which you know this is something special for royalty only when there's a rhinoceros clock.  Have you ever known a commoner who had a rhinoceros clock?

From the Hall of Clocks to the Dragon Wall:

As we move deeper and deeper into the Forbidden City:

We then came to the next gate to get through:

What I liked about this particular gate were the lion statues.  Now there are lion statues all over the Forbidden City.  There are lion statues all over Beijing.  Every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown Las Vegas has lion statues in front of them.  But not like these.  The ones fronting this gate looked a little different, a little "off."

A little, shall we "cowardly"?  They looked just like Bert Lahr!

Which is a good enough reason for me to want my picture taken next to them.

Next up, the building that has the Empress's throne:

And this is her throne.

Well, was.  There is no empress anymore.

This is a giant jade carving.

How'd it get so big?

That's a head scratcher.

Family scene:

Back outside to look at dragons on the roof:

Our tour guide Joanna is under the tree:

More red buildings:

And, soon, we reach the northern limit of the Forbidden City.  What was once forbidden has become the familiar.

And back into the tsunami of humanity:

One last view of the Forbidden City:

One last view with Forbidden Me.