Forbidden City

Forbidden City

There be dragons and monsters there. Everywhere. This dragon and three others like him emerge from a cornice.



One of the few allowances to modern Chinese history is this huge portrait of Chairman Mao right over the main, central entrance to the Forbidden City.


We are going in!





Entrance to the Forbidden City is a dream for Chinese everywhere so, with 1.4 billion aspirants, things get a little busy. Here a charming Chinese woman is excited for her adventure.





Security is on full display and sightings of the army are frequent. Forbidden City is all part of one huge - incredibly huge - governmental centre which includes, only for one example, Tienanmen Square.






Once inside one is beset with over-spilling imperial splendor and eye-numbing opulence. After a while it becomes sensory overload. But not quite as bad as parts of the Vatican.




Most buildings seem to have had special purposes so that one might have a throne room in one building for catching early evening land breezes and another one for the late morning song bird - I exaggerate of course but it takes a lot of excuses to build 9,999 rooms, the number claimed for the Forbidden City.




And the exteriors of these monumental buildings are as ornate as the interiors. All in good taste they maintain great order and coherence through repeating themes. Often in stacked repetitions.





In this huge expanses of laid brick - giant plazas - walkways, bridges, lagoons and ponds break what would otherwise be a brilliant monotony. Many statues line the pathways. Here are the imperial tortoise and crane.



Lions and dragons have their run of the place!




Errant monks as well. This guy was a favorite with his joyful bouncing step.








We soldier on for well over a mile. Clearly the overwhelming overall purpose of the Forbidden City was to indulge the emperors court while loudly displaying wealth and power. Not quite Xanadu, still one can appreciate Coleridge in these circumstances with the stately pleasure domes and all.




One area of the Forbidden City one got a very good sense about its purpose and design - this was the sequestered area for the Emperor's Harem. Dragons guarded the central area, no doubt warning would-be interlopers that they would suffer a grisly end if they messed with the emperor's playthings.




It had an almost elegant suburbanity about it. One could well understand this: for a young woman to get the imperial nod was a family fortune in the making. The girls lived in overwhelming luxury, at least while in favor.





Dazed by the numbers, Felicity and I picked our way back through the city and out the main entrance, putting Chairman Mao and the Forbidden City behind us.