Day 68 Beijing, China

The ancient glory of Beijing revealed itself to us today. The Forbidden City is a well preserved relic of how the nobility lived and governed the Chinese people. We started at Tianmen Square which serves as a national gathering place. It was a cold and rainy day yet there were thousands of people, mostly Chinese, who milled around the square before entering the Forbidden City. The main gate is located just underneath a picture of Chairman Mao who welcomes you. As an aside, on the opposite end of the square Chairman Mo lies in state in a crystal casket. While we did not visit the building that houses him, we are told he is covered with a flag except for his face which you can see. There was a long line which made our decision even easier.
The entire complex is located on a north south axis which runs the length of the city. Interestingly, the Olympic facilities were constructed along the exact same axis only about five miles to the north. Inside the Forbidden City there are various areas that were available to people of those days depending on their social status. The inner court was reserved for the emperor and his family. The outer court was for the emperors extended family. The next ring moving out was for royalty and well placed people and the most outside ring was for commoners. Only the two most inner rings were within the Forbidden City. The entire grounds are relpeat with Chinese symbolism, much of which would go unnoticed by a westerner just walking thru. The buildings are painted mostly red with decorations. The roofs are yellow which is a symbol of royalty. By contrast the commoners were required to paint their houses grey. There are no trees in the city because they did not want anything to be taller than the royal place. This gives it a very stark appearance. The rain we walked in did not help either.
There were many temples inside that are lined up on the north south axis. It is a stretch to try to imagine how these people lived in such a detached world.
This city was constructed in 1406 and served as the seat of government until 1911. This city only represents the last 500 years of the dynasty.
This is truly a special place.
After finishing our walk thru the Forbidden City by following the north south axis we got back into the car and were off to see the Summer Palace. This was the location of the royal family and all the others from the Forbidden City from April thru October. It is located on a man made lake next to a man made mountain. This is to represent the ying and yang. Water and mountain. The symbolism here is to vast to try to describe. Everything from colors, placement of urns or statues, the number of rooms (nine is a royal number since it is the highest single digit odd number), archways being flat on one side and round on the other, etc, etc...
The most colorful person we learned of is the Dragon Lady. She was the wife of the emperor who died. To maintain power she set up a throne directly behind the real throne separated by a curtain. The next emperor was only five years old so she told him what to do. When he got old enough to think for himself she had him put under house arrest and ran the government herself. She was quite the schemer. All in all is was a day full of very interesting information.
Tomorrow more Beijing.. The Great Wall

Chris - What an interesting day! Paul told you what we did and the background so I'll just add some tidbits and my impressions. Tiamen Square is the largest square in the world and it is enormous with the National Museum (the past) on one side of it and their government building (the future) on the other side. As you face the main gate of the Forbidden City the large picture of Chairman Mao is actually a painting that is replaced every year and weighs 9 tons. The Forbidden City is a grand and majestic complex that is the largest and completed wooden cluster in the world today. The Forbidden City is surrounded by a 10 meter tall wall and a 52 meter wide and 6 meter deep moat, whose bank is lined with bricks. On each corner of the wall stands a corner tower, all of these constitute the strong defensive barrier of the Forbidden City.
Outside of a number of the gates in the Forbidden City and at the Summer Palace area pair of bronze lions. The one on the left is always the male stepping on a ball, while the one on the right touching an infant lion with its claw is the female. The male lion symbolizes dominant rule over the country while the female represents multiplied descendants, both indicating emperor's supreme power. In addition to the many beautiful buildings there are a number of quaint bridges over a river that wanders 2,000 meters in the Forbidden City like a jade ribbon, thus called the Jade Ribbon River. It serves a number of purposes; supplying a water source for fire prevention, draining off the rain, decorating the square, and etc. I did miss flowers and trees that would have softened the buildings but there is an Imperial Gardens near the north gate, so they were able to enjoy greenery. Another interesting point was that in the gift shop there was a nephew of the last Emperor who one day a week you can watch do calligraphy. Practicing calligraphy was a required course in the royal education system in the Qing Dynasty. Today the money from the sale of any of the nephew's calligraphy goes to support the upkeep of the Forbidden City.
On our way to the Summer Palace we were able to see a little more of the city of Beijing. One area of interest to me was Beijing's hutongs (side lanes) that form the skeleton of Old Beijing. Hutongs consist of streets, lanes and alleys and their history can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Most of the buildings are gray (symbolizing commoners) and the buildings are no more than two stories and mixed in with single story houses. It used to be where the poorer commoners lived but today they have become the chic place to live and are thus quite expensive. It became apparent very early in our walk around the Summer Palace that this is where I would have spent all my time if I had been an Emperor. Three quarters of this extremely vast grounds is a man made lake that via a river runs to the Forbidden city so the Emperor can travel to his Summer Palace by water. The grounds, even on a cold rainy day, were gorgeous. Beautiful quaint stone bridges gracefully spanning willow treed shorelines made for a very serene and picturesque setting. The Dragon Lady Paul referenced had an extremely long (like around 1 kilometer) ornate covered walkway built along the lake so she could walk off her very indulgent dinner every night. She may have been a mean, dragon of a lady...but she had the right idea there. I'd LOVE to return here on a pretty summer day!