Weekend at the Forbidden City

We passed this on the way to the Forbidden City. Knowing none of the specifics, all I can say is that Mao's burial ground is pretty magnificent.

The Forbidden City (Gu Gong 故宫) is the former imperial palace of the emperor of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It's main body encompasses a series of "gates" which are really enormous buildings with a large doorway in each side. Each of these gates was dediated to a different activity, such as presenting awards to successful generals. The first gate, which you have to walk through to actually get to the "palace museum" as it is now called, is Tienanmen Gate of the well-known Tienanmen Square. There are so many gates, smaller buildings, and even gardens in  this structure, that the Forbidden City is still the world's largest palace complex.

Below is a photograph of Tienanmen Square, full of smog and tourists, as we walked through it on our way to the Forbidden City.

 

The first gate we saw after entering the forbidden city was pretty cool. But i'm only showing you one of these, because, in the end, the gates all looked pretty much the same.

Here's a closer-up shot. You may notice all the umbrellas. Let me explain.
It was not raining. Beijing is one of those wonderful places where people actually use sun umbrellas. It's awesome.

This nice picture shows one side of the complex, as seen from a gate. Hopefully you can tell how big this place really is.

Nice walk between buildings in one of those side ares you just saw. Nice long walk.

And last--it was the last thing we walked through in the Forbidden City too--the Empress' Gardens.