Asia 2008 | Day 14 | Tiananmen and Forbidden City, Beijing | Travel Photographer
I only reserved two days in Beijing, but I found that it was an adequate amount of time to see all the main attractions like Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, Summer Palace, and the Birds Nest. It was much too cold to stay longer anyways! The morning called for a stroll over to Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City as the hotel was only a 5 minutes’ walk. The day couldn’t have gotten any better; the sun layered itself behind the misty clouds to create a nice even light. I decide to fit them both into the day as I knew photo ops were going to present themselves throughout the day.
When I arrived, for a while I just slowly paced around the guards at Tiananmen Square hoping to catch one of them yawning. I will give them this: I definetly don’t have the discipline to stand in the cold in the same spot for hours! After managing to snap a couple of shots, the guards started noticing the real reason why I was hanging around the area for so long, and concentrated even harder to stay composed and not yawn.
Just after entering through the front there was a huge court yard filled with mobile shops open for service ready to rip you off if and when you didnt think to bargain. You’d be surprised how low you can bargain on some items. Set a realistic wholesale price on the item, add 10% and stick it out till the end. I happened to find some very nice souvenirs here, and I suggest everyone to take some time going through the shops.
The Forbidden City also known as the “Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang” was definitely much bigger in person then the impression I had, given the photos I browsed online. I soon found out I had enough time to only visit the most important places within the city. From wall to wall the city was 72 Hectares, and if an individual was to see the whole place in detail, they would need to spend at least 2 days. Everything about the city was a monolith; made for great pictures, but took a decent amount of time to travel from one place to another. The paintings and colours looked as though it was painted just last week. I know this has been an ongoing restoration project, but it just shows how well everything has been maintained over the last 600 years.
“The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms[1] and covers 720,000 square metres (7,800,000 square feet). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture,[2] and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987,[2] and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
Since 1924, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artefacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum’s former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War.” – Wiki
By the time I hit the end of the complex, the sun was already descending over the horizon and staff started leading people to the nearest exits. I had only walked straight from the south gate to the north, while I missed everything situated around the city. Only another day would be needed, but unfortunately I didn’t have any more time to sacrifice.
On my way back to the entrance, I managed to catch the daily national flag raising/lowering ceremony. Every morning at sunrise troops step out into Tiananmen Square and raise the flag while the national anthem plays. At exactly sunset, troops lower the flag, stop traffic on the 6 Lane Street and march their way to Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace). I pushed my way through the crowd of people and managed to capture the march across the bridge and later across the courtyard as well .
Later that night I pondered about going out and visiting the Beijing Olympic Village. The front desk wasn’t able to answer if by this time the Village was still open or not. I decided to make the trip out anyways because it was either now or trying to drag my butt out of bed early tomorrow morning. If you are ever in Beijing don’t let those hotel maps deceive you, it may look within walking distance, but it’s a one hour bus ride or 30 minute cab ride just to get there! When I arrived the Village was completely shut down, the lights were turned off, gates were positioned all around the nest and water cube. You were able to walk around and see some of the art pieces outside and take pictures from a distance. The cold was inescapable, so I gave myself a certain amount of time before calling it quits. Even after completely trying to seal myself up with warm clothes, the cold always managed to find its way in *SHIVER*
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