Beijing—Forbidden City

On our China trip there are three destinations, and Beijing is the first stop. Arrived in Beijing this week and somehow managed to get a train into the centre from the airport and then got to my hostel using the underground system. Today I visited the Forbidden City with a friend I met at the hostel, and was lucky enough to get a relatively smog-free day with sunshine, even though it was still cold. We entered the Forbidden City through the Meridian Gate, and the first thing you see is the Gate of Supreme Harmony with the enormous Palace of Supreme Harmony looming behind it. Its quite a breath-taking sight and the photos really don't do it justice there was too much to take in as there are huge, majestic buildings all around you. Behind the Palace of Supreme Harmony is the Palace of Middle Harmony - nicely named to as not to seem as important as the first! However it isn't just the name that indicates how important each building is, on the corners of the roofs there are small animals depicted and the most important buildings can have up to 11 animals, whereas simple gateways will have just 1 or 2.
Some visitors chatted with us and told us the Summer Palace was also very beautiful and worth a visit.We also visited the Emperor's (and Empresses') clock gallery. Apparently they had a great fondness for clocks, receiving them as gifts from all over the world and filling their palaces with them to the extent that there was no longer any room to move. I took some pictures of the wackiest clocks thinking of my Granddad with his clock collection, however to be completely honest most of those on display were so garish and OTT that they didn't really make for good pictures! Finally we went to the Imperial Garden at the back of the Forbidden City, where there are hundreds of knotted, twisted trees with supports holding them upwards. There are also a number of small palaces and it was really very pretty. W e spent pretty uch a whole day within the city walls, and could have spent longer.
It took at least 25 minutes to walk straight from one wall to another, so that gives some idea of the sheer size!
We have 3 days time in Beijing, and expect 1 day to the Great Wall. Then we will take our train to Xi’an.