The Forbidden City

We had intended, according to my itinerary (yes my one real contribution to the holiday was a sightseeing itinerary), to visit the Temple Of Heaven in the morning. This didn't happen as we didn't wake up until the maid tried to clean our rooms at midday! We had a lot of sleep to catch up on from the plane journey.

So that left a walk to the Forbidden City, our hotel being close enough to make that an easy trip, despite the intense heat. On the way we got talking to a "student" who was just on his way to meet his tutors at an art festival. This is an apparently well-worn scam which inevitably ended up in inviting us to see his art-works in a small exhibition (ie shop). Thibault tried to let us escape by saying we might come back later after visiting the Forbidden City, but the other Chinese person in the shop hastily piped up that this wouldn't be possible as they would be closing in half an hour (especially unlikely for a shop to close at 3 in the afternoon). However, that was our last chance to escape without just having to refuse the great discounts we had been offered on his works, which to be fair were pretty decent and not too expensive, so even though a scam we wouldn't have really been "done" if we had acquired something. Just didn't like to be pushed into it like this!

Anyway, on to the Forbidden City, for which we eventually found both a ticket booth and entrance despite some less than clear signage.

Now I have to say I was little underwhelmed by the Forbidden City as a tourist. It consists of an Outer Court and an Inner Court, but quickly one feels its all a bit samey. Most of the buildings are not open, so all you are left looking at are these courtyards (with lots of tourists in groups, almost all being local Chinese tourists) and very similar looking buildings. Each of them is very attractive - especially the roof lines - but when you have seen one....

The scale of the place was I suppose quite impressive, and you could get a feeling of that despite the crowds because they all seemed to bunch together in their tour groups. So for example this shot of Thibault makes it look like we had the place to ourselves.

But here you can see this shot over the "Golden Water" (actually a muddy green), that's not quite the reality.

 I do like sculpture, and the place is littered with animal bronzes, especially of Chinese lions which you see all over China. This male guardian lion has a paw on globe to signify the emperor's power over the world.

The roofs are the most characteristic feature of all the buildings. The overhanging eaves offer welcome shade as well as a canvas for colourful decoration.

These gilded cauldrons were actually a fire safety measure. They were kept topped up with water, and even heated in winter to avoid freezing, so there was a ready supply of water to suppress any fires.

A rare glimpse of a sparsely furnished interior - and only from a closed off doorway.

 This marble carriageway was labelled the "Large stone carving", which is a fair description given its over 200 tons of marble carved with dragons chasing pearls among clouds

 This female lion, in contrast the male above, has her paw on a baby lion, to represent the emperor's fertility. Well, he had the pick of countless concubines, so he should have been up for it.

he most attractive part of the complex to my eyes are the Imperial Gardens, with their pavilions and rock gardens. And these are rock gardens with seriously big rocks.

 The Pavilions all have intricately carved and decorated ceilings. This might have been the Pavilion of a Thousand Autumns, or the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Springs. Great names. (And before the Gardens we had the Gate of Heavenly Purity, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and the Hall of Supreme Harmony)

These are the Roof Guardians - a procession of mythical beasts.

The Forbidden City is surrounded by a large moat with watch towers on the corners. It makes for pleasant enough stroll. Although these pictures omit the traffic on the other side, so not as tranquil as it might seem.

Immediately to the south of the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square. Actually I think its supposed to be Tian'an Men Guangchang - the Square of Heavenly Peace - somewhat ironic considering what its most famous for in the West (although judiciously excised from history in China itself). It is vast.

This is a Ming Dynasty gate from which Chairman Mao face beams down on us, surprisingly cheerily given the untold misery and death he heaped on the Chinese. Perhaps the most astonishing thing that Beijing exemplifies is just how amazing progress has been made since his death. There can be no greater proof of the benefits of economic capitalism over communism than here. All China needed to explode in prosperity was to kill off communism which had maintained its iron grip of poverty on the country for so many years.

We should probably have explored the Square more, including the Monument to the People's Heroes in the middle shown below, but frankly it was just so hot that what we really wanted was a bar to settle into and have a drink. Sadly, Beijing doesn't really do bars, so we didn't find one until we got back to the hotel.

After a much needed shower and rest we headed out to find dinner. After a bit of effort we managed to find a restaurant recommended in my guide book. Again it was in a modern shopping complex. It was also very swanky and the girls at the door didn't seem to much appreciate our somewhat dishevelled appearance in shorts, t-shirts and sandals, although given the temperature that seemed sensible attire. After a bit of consultation they said they might be able to fit us in after half an hour or so, but we decided against it.

However, despite much effort we just couldn't find another restaurant open. We even headed back to the Mall where we ate the previous night, but the restaurants there had closed too. In fact we found that many restaurants in Beijing stop serving at 8:30, which seems preposterously early. In desperation we headed back to the hotel, whose reception assured us that despite appearances to the contrary (like all the tables had been cleared), the courtyard of the hotel was still open even at 11pm, so we ate a reasonable if pricey meal there. Only real irritations were that the rice arrived after we had eaten everything else (this was to be a recurring theme in our dining experiences) and that at night the mosquitoes come out to feed themselves. Mostly on my legs.