China Forbidden City

Our last day in China we got to tour the famous Forbidden City.

 This is one of the gates into the Forbidden City.

 The forbidden City is a palace complex in Beijing that was the imperial palace from the Ming Dynast to the end of the Qing Dynasty, 1420 to 1912.  almost 500 years.

 This signifies the highest order, the order of the Emperor.

 The Forbidden City was the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.  It consists of 980 buildings and covers over 180 acres.   It was the home of Emperors and their households and servants.

 It is the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world. Construction lasted 14 years and required more than a milliion workers.

 It also houses an extensive collection of artwork and artifacts from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.  Although most of the art was taken to Taiwan and is in the National Museum there.

 We saw lots of interesting buildings in the Forbidden City.

 We saw the quarters of the Empress Dowager.  During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces took control of the Forbidden City and occupied it during the war.  During the Boxer Rebellion the Empress Dowager Cixi fled the Forbidden City.  They considered burning it down but decided to leave it and only burn down the Summer Palace.  It was fortunate the Forbidden City was preserved.  However we learned that the Chinese did totally destroy the Mongol Forbidden City of Kublai Khan which was said to be even bigger, and razed the buildings to the ground.

 Gate within the Forbidden City.

 Throne of the Empress Dowager.

 Moat outside the Forbidden City.

 Next we visited the summer palace of the Empress Dowager.    She had it rebuilt after it had been destroyed by the European powers after the Boxer Rebellion.

 They built an enormous man-made lake at the Summer Place.  She had 700.000 people working to dig the lake.  It amazes me the national resources some despotic rulers of ancient countries squandered on selfish pursuits: like this Summer Palace, or the Terracotta Army, or the Pyramids of Egypt, or the palace at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

 We saw a stone ship made of marble.  It wouldn't float so it was permanently docked.

 We did get to take a cruise across the man-made lake.

 Intricate paintings in the ceiling enclosure of an outdoor sidewalk.

 That was our last day in China.  Our farewell dinner was a Chinese feast that centered around Peking Duck.

That was the end of our trip to China.  It was quite an experience.