{Part V of Husband Pieter's Trip to East Asia - Forbidden City in Beijing, China}

As already mentioned in my last post, now I want to show some photos from The Forbidden City in Beijing, China.
Pieter reached it from across the Tiananmen Square...

In response to some comments; NO I did not travel with Pieter!

This is husband Pieter at one of the entrance gates, next to the gilded lion guard with his ears perked up.
We have lost several of our slides, while moving, so I will continue with showing you one over view from Photopin, see below.

Photo credit:

Forbidden City, Beijing via photopin (license) The Forbidden City got declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, the very year that husband Pieter did visit. It is HUGE and would take days I guess, for seeing it all. Build in the 15th Century, it is an incredible complex of over 900 buildings on a piece of 72 ha (180 acres). Just click the link above for more info.

Millions of visitors enter through its gate every year and Pieter was one of them on March 25, 1987. Pieter wrote in his diary (which he managed to write only during the first 7 days...) that it is impossible to put into words how enormous this palace complex from the Chinese Emperors is. They must have been big Ego-trippers for having something like that built for them!  The sharp contrast with the country side makes one feel guilty even now.

 The Daily Mail published the above info: Revealed: How 15th century workers used ICY roads to haul 100-tonne stones to buildChina's Forbidden City  just click on link. Incredible that they moved that much stone over a distance of 43 miles!

HUGE doors with 9 rows of 9 brass knobs and a lion head.

Decoding the Mystery of 'Nine' click the link for reading more about this use of nine, particularly for imperial buildings.  The number of gilded doornails on all major gates at the Forbidden City and imperial gardens are good examples of the nine phenomena. Each door, which is adorned with nine doornails, both vertically and horizontally (81 nails in total), represents the supreme power of the emperor.  Red is a sign of wealth... By the way, the figure 720,000 square kilometers should be square meters!

Pieter always loved to photograph people...

Guess back in 1987 not many foreign tourists would visit Beijing's places of interest.

Incredible art work those gilded bronze lion guards at the Gate of Heavenly Purity

This is a lioness with a cub under her left paw.

Notice also that she has her ears down... 

This cutie is about to wave goodbye for now...

Do you see the brass door knobs behind the child?

For a short and very informative video, just click here: Forbidden City, Beijing, China in HD
Pieter did travel thousands of kilometers within China but one should realize that it is such a VAST country!

United States is around the same size as China. ~ Will be continued with The Temple of Heaven...

Related links:
{Part IV of Husband Pieter's Trip to East Asia - City Views of Beijing} | previous post by me

{Part III of Husband Pieter's Trip to East Asia - Arrival in Beijing, China} | previous post by me
{Part II of Husband Pieter's Trip to East Asia - Tokyo, Japan to Beijing, China} | previous post by me

{Part I of Husband Pieter's Trip to East Asia} | previous post by me

{People to People Citizen Ambassador Program - Husband Pieter's Trip to East Asia} | previous post by me