Beijing: The Forbidden City

I’m not really a sightseeing person, but today I visited both Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The sun has been shining all day so in the afternoon, I wanted to buy myself a nice and cold ice cream. I thought that I had bought a vanilla/strawberry popsicle but I was wrong. What I thought was strawberry jam turned out to be some kind of bean paste.

Despite my deeply rooted sightseeing aversions, I must admit that the Forbidden City was a really impressive sight. It is fascinating to think of how China’s emperors during more than 500 years were living with their eunuchs and concubines, more or less isolated from the outside world behind the high walls of the Forbidden City.

The size of the palace is almost inconceivable. There are more than 700 buildings and reportedly 9999.5 rooms, since only the celestial emperor could have 10,000 rooms.

I visited the palace at midday, so I had some troubles taking really good pictures in the bright sunlight, but I hope that you’ll at least get an idea of how large and beautiful the palace was.

I’m just writing a short update since the internet connection is very unstable and it takes a very long time to upload each image.  Otherwise the new hotel is rather ok even though only one person among the staff speaks a little bit English. The only place in my room with proper functioning electricity is the bathroom, so that’s where I’m blogging from right now.

My Beijing Blog