April 7 - Forbidden City, Beijing, China

After 40 years, I finally made it to China! And I'm going to walk on the Great Wall. Wohoo! But first we are going to The Forbidden City.

We ported in Tianjin, and were greeted with a heartfelt welcome from the Chinese government. 

They provided entertainment, including the revered Dragon Dance (the dancers in blue), which I caught on video. 

And to no surprise and they caught everything on CCTV. As I was watching the entertainment, the drone was literally in my face. And later when I headed out on the excursion, the film crew followed me. If you see me, please forward me the link. 

It was quite smoggy in Tianjin, so my pictures may be a little blurry. We found out later that the Chinese government moved all smog producing factories out of Beijing and into Tianjin, to clean up the air for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

It was a 3+ hour drive to Beijing. We were lucky that we didn't arrive yesterday as it was a day a remembrance. It is a day when all Chinese visit the graves of their ancestors/elders and decorate the graves. 

I found it interesting that there were quite a few graves in fields and parks


We then stopped for lunch at the Jianguo Hotel, which is a renown hotel in Beijing.

 The food was great and served family style with a local beer.


We then headed to the center of the city, which is the Forbidden City, which actually changed it's name in 1925 to The Palace Museum. It was constructed between 1420 and 1426. Parts kept burning down and they were (are) constantly expanding. It was the former Chinese imperial palace and winter residence of the Emperor of China from the Ming dynasty (since the Yongle Emperor) to the end of the Qing dynasty, between 1420 and 1924. The forbidden city served as the home of Chinese emperors and their household and was the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government for over 500 years. It consists of 180 acres.

Gates and Moats




Courtyards and Buildings










Ornaments and statues. Did you know Chinese don't call them dragons anymore, they are called Loongs. And just to remind you; Japanese dragons have 3 toes, Chinese loong have 4 toes and loongs of the royalty have 5 toes.

Sacred Items were held in this sarcophagus (grains, herbs and small pieces of metal)


Female (youngster under claw) and  Male (world under claw)


Roof Decorations of Mystical Animals to protect and ward off evil spirits


Palace interior


Garden

Lover's Trees

Rock Monument 

View from the Palace Museum of where my excursion buddy, Diana lived.

People rent costumes and have their pictures taken inside the City


And of course everything is under the watchful eye of the government


And no post is complete without Residences (and flowers)


Cool Structures

And I noted that Beijing has as much traffic as LA



Separate Bike Lanes

Government buildings, art museums, hotels and signage


 

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