The Forbidden City

From Tiananmen Square, we crossed the street and entered the Forbidden City.  The Forbidden City was built in the Ming Dynasty and took fourteen years (1406-1420) to build. In the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, it was the imperial palace where twenty-four emperors ruled for over 500 years.  It has approximately 8,700 rooms and 23 gates - we started at the front entrance, and exited out the back of the property, and it seemed as though we were never going to get through the grounds.  Every time you saw a gate to "exit" there was another bigger, more beautiful building.

The Meridian Gate

Lovin' the star-ratings for the toilets!

China has a lot of "squatty" pottys and they don't care for them nearly as well as they do in Korea, so we were pleased to see this sign, and I was really glad to get back home where there's a good chance you have an actual toilet to use, and they don't smell awful!

I belive Tristan had the camera for this shot.

There is a river that curves like an arch in front of the Gate of Supreme Harmony. The river is called the Inner Golden Water, the banks of which are decorated with balusters made of white marble.

Another mob around the kids...

A portion of the original brick used on the grounds of the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, also named the Palace Museum, shares the honor of being one of five world-famous palaces with the Palace of Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in England, the White House in the U.S. and the Kremlin in Russia.

We were told that these pots, that were all around the palace grounds, were once filled with water and were to be used to put out any fires that might occur in the buildings.

The Gate of Heavenly Purity

This is the entrance to the Inner Court where the emperor, empress, and concubines lived.

Even though it hasn't been repainted, it was still an impressive sight.

A neat gnarly tree at the entrance to the Imperial Garden

I could've spent hours in the garden taking pictures!

Tristan, Zane, Grace, and Brody

It really helped to have friends along on the trip with us!  The kids enjoyed having others their age to experience all this with.

One of the six watch towers

This is another place that we would've loved to have more time at, but in trying to get in all the sights in 5 days, it just wasn't possible.  There was SO much to see, I imagine you could spend a full day here and still not get to see everything.   

Tiananmen Square

Day three in China took us to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Tiananmen Square is the geographical center of Beijing City. It is the largest city square in the world, able to accommodate 1,000,000 people at one time.

Tiananmen Gate at night

A soldier guarding the entrance to Tiananmen Square

The National Museum of China

Each of these squares "holds" two people

But I'm guessing most of them are bigger than these two.

Monument to the People's Heroes

The monument was built in 1952 to honor the martyrs who devoted their lives to China, and is at the center of the square. It is the largest monument in China's history.  'The People's Heroes are Immortal' written by Chairman Mao, is engraved on the monument which also has eight large relief sculptures showing the people the development of Chinese modern history.

In front of Tiananmen Gate

At the north end of the Square is Tiananmen Gate. It was built in 1417 during the Ming Dynasty.  The Square was the front door of the Forbidden City, and was used most importantly, to declare to the common people who became the emperor and the empress. No one, except for the royal family and aristocrats, could enter the Tower until 1911 when the last feudal kingdom was over.

We didn't have much time to go into the different buildings, but there are several museums around the square, including Mao Zedong Memorial Hall, where the remains of Chairman Mao (the first Chairman of the People's Republic of China) are displayed in a crystal coffin. 

Jade Factory

Day Two in China began with a drive by the 2008 Olympic complex on our way to the jade factory.

The Bird's Nest 

The cube - aquatics center

We had several government mandated stops on our itinerary - one being the jade factory.  They had a lot of beautiful pieces, but there "deals" and "reasonable prices" were still a bit too high for my skimpy wallet! 

A jade craftsman working on a "happy family ball"

 Another stop after the Great Wall and Summer Palace was the pearl market.  Here I was able to find a deal or two - after all, I needed a necklace to wear with my ball gown on the 21st.

A freshwater oyster our guide cracked open in front of us.

I even got a pearl straight from this oyster as I guessed there were an average of 13 pearls per oyster.