The Big Finale

8/11/15

I feel a reference map (courtesy of chinahighlights.com) is in order to help put the photos & descriptions into perspective. The southern/front portion of the Forbidden City (palace grounds) was where the emperor conducted affairs of state; the northern/rear portion was for his private life. 

We were not actually allowed to go through the Gate of Heavenly Peace (the Tiananmen Square gate) – the original, entrance into the Imperial City; we had to walk around it into a separate tourist entrance. [NN: They were preparing the square for a festivity to be held in a couple of days.] I needed a little lesson into how to keep the different cities straight and to understand their separation. Essentially, the Forbidden City is where the emperor and his wives/concubines resided. This was, as the name indicates, off limits to anyone else. Surrounding and somewhat protecting the Forbidden City was the Imperial City, where only the elite, upper class (think Chinese noblemen/aristocrats) lived. Walled off from and surrounding the Imperial City was the common people’s city (referred to by some as the outer city). These people would never see the inside of either the Imperial or the Forbidden City, which of course fed into the mythos and legendary reputation of the Forbidden City. 

Meridian Gate - southern entrance to the Forbidden City

But since we aren’t commoners in imperialist China, we’re fortunate enough to be able to go inside and see what all the hubbub was about…and of course, it most definitely lived up to the hype!

Nick walks through the central doorway of the Meridian Gate - formerly, only the emperor could pass this through gate (or the empress but only on her wedding day); everyone else had to use side doorways

Meridian Gate roof detail

Meridian Gate roof detail

The Chinese Imperial Palace was built over centuries, begun in 1420 during the Ming dynasty and continually added to and in use until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, the palace was home to an astonishing 24 emperors! Expanding over 180 acres, of which we only saw a small fraction in our lightning fast walk-thru L, the palace grounds contain 980 buildings with supposedly 9,999 rooms (one short of the kingdom of heaven since the emperor was considered the son of the king of heaven and couldn’t be so brash as to match the number of rooms his holy father had) but in actuality only had a “mere” 8,704 rooms. ;P  And yes, as our tour guide excitedly wanted us to know: the movie “The Last Emperor” really was filmed here.

From Meridian Gate, standing on the Golden Water Bridges & looking out onto the Gate of Supreme Harmony

 Gate of Supreme Harmony

Gate of Supreme Harmony Detail

One thing I’m always excited to do on our trips is visit UNESCO World Heritage Sights, of which the Forbidden City is one. UNESCO lists the City as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. And holy crap were they impressive!! Again, just like the Summer Palace, every inch of structure was covered in beautifully ornate hand-painted or carved decorations. Many of the buildings were restored and repainted for Beijing Olympics but there were some that historians argued needed to be keep as-is in their original, unrestored condition to represent and preserve the history that is there so they kept some building unrestored – even those were beautiful in their rot and ruin.

Iron water vats for fire fighting in front of Hall of Middle Harmony, in front of Hall of Supreme Harmony

 Hall of Supreme Harmony marble dragon water spouts

Hall of Supreme Harmony roof detail

Hall of Preserving Harmony - original paint job (un-restored)

Hall of Preserving Harmony Roof Detail

Hall of Preserving Harmony Throne

Tourist posing for shots with replica throne

The Forbidden City is encased in an imposingly high wall, with watch towers at the four corners, and surrounded by a moat. The Front/Outer Court where we entered was used for ceremonial purposes. [NN: This is called the Meridian Gate and you might remember there are three small tunnel entrances (compared to the huge wall at least); as you enter it opens up to a massive square with the imposing Palace Museum sitting atop intricately carved steps. The impact of entering a relatively small tunnel to the HUGE square of the interior is truly astounding!] The Inner Court or Back Palace was used as the residence of the emperor and his family, as well as for day-to-day government affairs. There are countless ceremonial gates and courtyards, receiving rooms, prayer rooms, libraries, private gardens, and concubine quarters. The women (wives or concubines) were not allowed to travel outside their quarters unless expressly given permission. The courtyards and concubines quarters were really the only places were able to go (partly due to time and partly due to preservation and closed off areas), so we got a lot of info on the life of a concubine. As expected, it was a competitive life, not only to seek/stay in favor with the emperor but also to stay alive among all of those jealous, fearful and competing women. Most of the furniture and portable decorations had been removed long ago, but we were able to see some large statues and preserved vases on display. The concubine quarters were all marked with the symbol of the phoenix, which denoted to anyone around at the time that only the emperor and eunuchs were allowed in these areas of the palace.

Only quality "happy rooms" for the emperor & his guests

Side gate to the Gate of Heavenly Purity (entering west/left-hand side of emperor's private quarters within Forbidden City)

Detail of the Gate of Heavenly Purity

Inner Gate

Western palace quarters

Western palace quarters

Western palace quarters - some artifacts on display, not normally how the room would look, though

Historical time periods were only romantic and beneficial for powerful, wealthy men, but as horrific as these time periods were for everyone else and as oppressive as the forced labor that built these gorgeous structures and supported these civilizations was, that kind of dominating power and money sure as shit left some amazingly impressive historical art and beauty behind. My father would have loved to see this. 

Within the concubine's quarters, the dragon was the ever-present symbol of the emperor (a mark on his property)

Palace of Gathered Elegance

Bat mosaic

Kneeling elephant

Imperial Garden gazebo

Gazebo roof detail

Hall of Mental Cultivation (read: library)

Inner courtyard behind North Gate

Outside of the Forbidden City - looking back at the North Gate

Our “farewell dinner” was quite the event – our tour guide made us reservations at a restaurant that specialized in Peking duck. We were told Peking duck was the emperor’s favorite way to eat duck, and thus it became the imperial food and quickly became famous, as it was the ONLY way duck was prepared in the late 1800s in China. Supposedly.

Northeast watch tower

The duck was delicious and endless! I lost count of how many ducks they brought out for all of us, I want to say close to 10! Sadly, Nick couldn’t really eat anything at dinner, while I probably devoured at least one and half ducks all on my own (if not more). The tour guide was most excited to share with us his favorite Chinese hooch: one of the most unpalatable sips of fire water I have ever had the displeasure to taste. The Mexican teenager next to me, however, took it upon himself to live up to his underage machismo and drank mine as well as a few other heavy-handed shots throughout the evening. The group then put on a talent show, whose awkwardness I can’t even BEGIN to describe. Nick and I tried to feign talentlessness but to no avail. So we ended up singing Monty Python’s “Philosopher’s Drinking Song”, since it seemed to fit the inebriated mood of our traveling companions. To my surprise, none of the senior citizens seemed at all familiar with Python’s oeuvre. [NN: And the non-native English speakers basically could not understand a word. Maybe they were wondering what a Schopenhauer or a Hildegard were.] I can claim, however, to have won the chopsticks contest, as I was the best at picking up more peanuts than anyone else with my adept skills. ;)

North side of moat around Forbidden City