The Forbidden City

Where were we going next station?
Let’s go to the Forbidden City. Actually, it has a long name that I have found on Wikipedia “Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang.”



We had a little story here but it was a little bit silly that we had thought to visit the Forbidden City when we first got Beijing. However, we didn’t do a lot of homework because I thought we had a professional tour guide who had studied there for two to three years. The story was that we couldn’t found how to get into the Forbidden City but we had visited the Tian An Men (天安門) for three times. Finally, we found out that the entrance was just next to the Tian An Men.

Before getting into the Forbidden City, we had to walk a long path to buy tickets. The tickets were not cheap actually, but I thought it was worth because of the history. Here, I sincerely gave you a tip that you definitely had to bring a hat and wore warm when you got there. In the winter, it would become much colder than outside because the huge wide place. Your head will be hard to endure the cold weather especially when the temperature was only -15 to -18 degrees.



Here, I introduce you three special walls. The first one is Meridian Gate. (午門) It is shaped the word “凹”, and only the middle gate (中門) open for the emperor but it was available once a year for the number one, two, and three scholars (狀元、榜眼、探花) in the imperial examination and the queen married to the emperor.↓


The next one is Gate of Divine Might which is northern gate of the Forbidden City. (神午門) Actually, I thought you guys were familiar with the gate because it usually appeared in some operas. It was settled a big bell that it would ring in the morning and afternoon totally 108 rings a day. It was also the path that girls who had been selected into the palace for serving the emperor.↓



The last one I wanted to show you was the Tian An Men which was the front gate of the palace. The gate now is hanged on Mo’s pictures and it is not allow to come closer outside the Forbidden City. If you really want to visit it, then you can go to buy a ticket and you can get into the gate.↓







Corner towers were used to protect the whole building around the corner. Although the original meaning was to defend others, the scenery is really beautiful.↓






Actually, the Forbidden City is too big to introduce to you in detail, but if you visit Beijing someday, you must have to visit there. You can google it if you are really interesting in those ancient buildings and history.