Beijing 2017, part 4 - Forbidden City

Our penultimate day in Beijing was spent at the Forbidden City, which like a lot of things in China has a much more impressive name in the guide books than it does according to the official literature.  Renamed as "The Palace Museum" following the nationalist over-throw of the imperial government, the palace was the center of government for the Ming and Qing dynasties, spanning 24 emperors over 500 years.

The approach is through the south gate, across the road from Tiananmen Square (which was sadly closed due to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that was going on in the adjoining government buildings).  The entrance through which ~17 million tourists per year flow is now adorned with an enormous portrait of Chairman Mao.

The entire palace is laid out along a North-South axis, with a special carriageway down the center to accommodate the emperor, who was the only one (presumably along with all of his litter-bearers) to travel down the middle path.  Officials and supplicants had to stay on either side of the marble-lined pathway.  Now Danger Monkey plays in the puddles.

The entire palace complex is an impossibly long series of gates, courtyards, and throne rooms followed by more gates, courtyards, and throne rooms.  To the sides were store rooms and actual living quarters for officials and servants.

Overall, there are nearly 1000 buildings in the palace complex, many still being restored and some holding special collections on painting, calligraphy, and timepieces that were collected by various emperors of the Qing dynasty.

At the north end of the palace is the emperor's private garden, a place for quieter contemplation surrounded by cypress trees that still grow there, some of which are as old as the palace.

Here you can see the varying levels of restoration of the paint and lacquer, as well as the two littlest SingaBorcherts trying to fall into a koi pond.

North of the Forbidden City is Jingshan Park, an imperial garden that was also opened to the public in the 1920's.  The most notable feature is a 150-foot-tall hill that overlooks the palace grounds, built almost entirely from the earth dug up to create the moat for the Forbidden City in the 15th century.  The hill's peaks are topped with intricate pavilions that were used by the emperor and his court, and currently mobbed by tourists looking to get sweet photos of the palace below, the Beijing skyline, and our curiously pale children.

Although Puyi, the last emperor of China famously retrofitted parts of the Forbidden City so that he could get around it more easily on a bicycle, it turned out that the stroller was a mistake.