Trip to Malaysia and China Part 3.

Sunday 8 July.

We caught the Underground back to Tiananmen Square fairly early but even at that hour the square was crowded with people, most of them were visiting Mao’s Tomb. However the crowd waiting to go into the Forbidden City was just as large and the queue moved forward slowly to the entrance to pay the entrance fee which only let you into some areas. This site has featured in many movies

Inside the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of theQing Dynasty. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, and the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 square metres. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The site of the Forbidden City was part of the Imperial City during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Construction lasted 15 years, and required more than a million workers.
From 1420 to 1644, the Forbidden City was the seat of the Ming Dynasty.

Forbidden City looking back from the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Forbidden City.

In 1860, during the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces took control of the Forbidden City and occupied it until the end of the war. In 1900 Empresses Dowager Cixi fled from the Forbidden City during theBoxer Rebellion, leaving it to be occupied by forces of the treaty powers until the following year.The Forbidden City is the world's largest surviving palace complex and covers 72 ha. It is a rectangle 961 metres from north to south and 753 metres from east to west. The Forbidden City was designed to be the centre of the ancient, walled city of Beijing. It is enclosed in a larger, walled area called the Imperial City. The Imperial City is, in turn, enclosed by the Inner City; to its south lies the Outer City.

The Five Bridges crossing Golden Water River.

The Forbidden City remains important in the civic scheme of Beijing. The central north-south axis remains the central axis of Beijing. This axis extends to the south through Tiananmen gate to Tiananmen Square, the ceremonial centre of the People's Republic of China.

Throne in Hall of Preserving Harmony.

The Forbidden City is surrounded by a 7.9-metre high city wall and a six-metre deep, 52-metre wide moat. The walls are 8.62 metres wide at the base, tapering to 6.66 metres at the top. These walls served as both defensive and retaining walls for the palace.

Dragon Wall in Emporer's Quarters in Forbidden City

At the four corners of the wall sit towers with intricate roofs boasting 72 ridges, reproducing the Pavilion of Prince Teng and the Yellow Crane Pavilion as they appeared in Song Dynasty paintings. These towers are the most visible parts of the palace to commoners outside the walls, and much folklore is attached to them.

Inside Meridan Gate Square.

Levels at the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

The wall is pierced by a gate on each side. At the southern end is the main Meridian Gate To the north is the Gate of Devine Might, which faces Jingshan Park. The east and west gates are called the "East Glorious Gate" and "West Glorious Gate". All gates in the Forbidden City are decorated with a nine-by-nine array of golden door nails, except for the East Glorious Gate, which has only eight rows.

The Meridian Gate has two protruding wings forming three sides of a square (Wumen, or Meridian Gate, Square) before it. The gate has five gateways. The central gateway is part of the Imperial Way, a stone flagged path that forms the central axis of the Forbidden City and the ancient city of Beijing itself, and leads all the way from the Gate of China in the south to Jingshan in the north. Only the Emperor may walk or ride on the Imperial Way, except for the Empress on the occasion of her wedding, and successful students after the Imperial Examination.

Relics - Forbidden City.

There is a lot to see in the Forbidden City and to understand it a good guide book is required to explain the function of the various buildings. While a lot of money has been spent on restoration, there is still a lot more to be done and that is a mammoth task. A few of the buildings were covered in scaffolding and shade cloth to hide the work from the public.

The Underground took us back to one of the main shopping areas, plenty of shops but mainly high priced brand name clothes with a few different eateries. A Sitzlers restaurant was found so the youngsters all dived on it and enjoyed their menu. Cheaper than Australian prices for similar serves but dearer than Chinese restaurants in the same area. In the same area was the main Chinese style foods, confusing a bit as some used a voucher systen where you purchased a voucher valued at 30RMB then it was presented to the staff and after your meal you had to go somewhere else to get the change.

Happiness !! A Sitzlers meal!

Monday 9 July.
We went on a tour up to the Great Wall at Badaling Pass in a small bus. The route out of Beijing took us pass the new Stadium being built for the Olympic Games. Near by some of the accomodation villages for the Games compeditors were being erected.

Our first stop was at the Ming Tombs where the majority of the Ming emperors were buried. The whole area covers 40 square kilometres and is laid out to Feng Shui principles and was to be the necropolis of the Ming Dynasty. Only two tombs have been excavated so far and we visited the Changling Tomb. On a previous trip here I had visited the Dingling Tomb which is underground and the spirit road to it is guarded by 36 guardians, some of which are mythical others are human or animals.

Ming Tombs statue

Map of Ming Tombs.

On exhibit are some relics from the opened tombs, some were unfortuneately damaged by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.

At Badaling Pass the street selllers were out in force with their souvenirs so some brisk walking was needed to put them behind you. As the walk up to the wall was very steep and the steps are quite high, a ‘pulley’ system was used to provide transport. Once on the wall there was a steady uphill walk to the first watchtower which was packed with tourists recovering fron the walk. Further along were more watch towers, each higher than the previous one until they reach the peak. The views from here were not marked by the haze that affects Beijing and the first blue sky seen in a week or so was here. It is a massive structure and very impressive.

Looking towards Beijing from the Great Wall.

Age is catching up with some one.

Some tourists.

There was a belated lunch stop at a Government store which had 2 floors devoted to eating. The only place that also gave out a couple of bottles of the Chinese Firewater- Maotai. One report on spirits had described some of the Chinese spirit drinks as ‘gut-rots’ and easily confused with a paint thinner but a good Maotai does warm the body on a cold day and is an excellent medicine if you have a sore throat. I still have the bottle so I had better have some soon to bring back memories!

While we had TV back in the hotel and there were 2 English speaking Chinese stations, their information given in the news sessions was very scant regarding China. Overseas there were reports about the severe flooding in central China and Peter was getting reports from Australia and Malaysia, in China no one knew anything about these floods and whether they would affect the trip to Xian. The floods we found out later were further inland and at that time they did not affect the central regions.