The Forbidden City in Winter.
Written: Jan 27 '05 (Updated Jan 28 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The whole site, architecture, beautiful and grandiose artifacts, gates.
Cons: None.
The Bottom Line: Visit the Forbidden City, it is one of the most impressive world class cultural sites in the world.
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| Ironcladd's Full Review: Forbidden City |
The Forbidden City in Winter.
By James P. Zaworski
I just returned last week from my one month long odyssey vacation to the Peoples Republic of China. While I was there I wanted to see as many different things as possible, but also to take my time and do this in a leisurely fashion. Thirty days sounds like a lot of time, but sometimes even during a long trip like this the daily routine of getting up early and going out into the cold weather to sight see can be almost like working. But it was definitely worth it! I visited China in the wintertime, and everyone told me I was perhaps a bit mad to do it this way, especially to visit Beijing. My friends from Beijing especially discouraged me from traveling there in the winter time, because they did not know I was from Chicago, and actually like the cold weather, and am as used to it as anyone can be. I planned this trip with this in mind, especially that I knew this was the off season for tourists, so therefore prices would be much less for just about everything, and that the major sites, including the Forbidden City, would be mostly devoid of tourists. I was correct in this assumption.
I stayed in Beijing for about 2 weeks. Each major site in Beijing, such as the Forbidden City, Bei Hai Park, The Great Wall, The Temple of Heaven, etc. were attractions that could have one full day devoted to each. It shows you how precious your time is while traveling, when you think of how old some of the sites are and for how long they were used, occupied, or how long the time was that elapsed to actually build them. On the third or fourth day in Beijing, my traveling companion and myself went to the Forbidden City. What follows is some information on the Forbidden City along with anecdotes from my experiences there in the winter of 2004.
A Brief History of the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was the home of the Emperors of China during the Ming and Qing (Manchu) Dynasties. It is an imperial architectural complex of some 800 buildings. The buildings are wooden structures with ceramic tiled roofing, varying degrees of guilding, stucco, and stone construction. Many of the buildings have burned to the ground in the past because of the firework displays getting out of hand, and maybe half of the extant buildings were rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty, by Emperor Qianlong. The Forbidden City today is also referred to as the Palace Museum.
The Forbidden City was so named because mere mortals could not enter this divine realm of imperial pleasures. It was the exclusive home of the Emperor, the son of heaven, and his family, consorts, mistresses, scribes, courtiers and beaureacrats. Some emperors never left the city, except in the summertime to go to the impressive Summer Palace to escape the oppressive heat of Beijing summer. Other emperors, such as Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, managed to get out and ambitiously tour his empire, adding his own enlightened views to improvements both civic and imperial, throughout his empire. He was kind of like a Ramses type or Napoleon like character, and his stamp can be seen throughout Beijing and China at large, but especially Beijing.
Qianlong rebuilt many of the buildings you see in the Forbidden City, and in the major attractions in Beijing, he had a hand in their reconstruction from fires, earthquakes, etc.
I think this guy is my favorite emperor of China, and it was a privilege to see his home up close and personal. (I had a nice opportunity to see a traveling exhibition in the summer of 2004 at the Field Museum of Natural History of selected pieces from Qianlongs time, which was nice preparation for this visit).
With the Empress Dowager Ci Xi and the child Emperor Pu Yi, the Qing Dynasty came to an end, and the Forbidden City became a kind of prison for the Emperor (check out the movie by that name). It is fortunate that this wonderful complex of buildings has survived European military intervention (some of the sites in Beijing were burned down by the British during the Opium Wars and Boxer Rebellion), as well as the tumultuous events of the Chinese revolution of Sun Yatsen, the Chinese Civil War between the Guomintang and Communist forces, and the invasion by Japan in World War II.
It was gutted and looted by Nationalist forces before they retreated to Taiwan in 1949, but enough remains to show the grandeur and splendor of China, and the divine power of the Emperors, the sons of Heaven.
Orientation.
The Forbidden City is situated in the heart of Beijing. It is directly to the north of Tiananmen Square, and the modern buildings built in the Chinese modern era. There is a wall around the entire site, and this is the original Ming Dynasty Wall in construction with ceramic tiles on the top. To the north of The Forbidden City is the Hutong District, and to The Jingshan and Beihai parks are to the northwest of the Forbidden City.
There are two main gates, a north gate and a south gate. The south gate opens up to the Tiananmen Square, and it is the site of the flag raising every early morning.
The site is huge! 720,000 square meters with 800 buildings, into which are 9000 rooms. The Forbidden City is the largest architectural complex of wood in China.
The north gate is called The Divine Military Genius Gate, and the south gate is called the Tiananmen Gate. There are many gates in between, such as the Supreme Harmony Gate, which was my favorite one.
My visit to the Forbidden City.
I got up early on the day to visit the Forbidden City, and departed the Rosedale Hotel by taxi with my traveling companion and interpreter, the lovely Jing who traveled with me for two whole weeks. We entered the Forbidden City after paying the entrance fee, the price eludes me right now, but I know the entrance prices were raised for all of Beijing historic sites just before I arrived. We paid the entrance fees (they give you a really colorful ticket for each of the sites in Beijing, which are nice souvenirs to keep as memories of your visit), and entered the city from the north, the Divine Gate of Military Genius. The gates themselves are wonderful constructions: huge and grandiose. You enter the Forbidden City and you are in a new world completely. You leave the modern bustling city of Beijing and return to a time before technological advances gave you the comforts of modern life, such as electricity and heat. This place stops you dead, and I have not had that feeling since I have been in the Temple of Karnak, Thebes, in Egypt about 20 years ago. Though the Forbidden City is not so ancient, it is a very solemn and moving place to behold, and it is very beautiful.
The architecture is all-Chinese, with their characteristic roof styles and the elegance that is all their own. Entering the Imperial Peace Hall and going into the Imperial Gardens, you get a sense of the enclosed world the Emperors of China enjoyed. Totally cut off from the people of their empire, the Emperors enjoyed the privilege and splendor of this quiet and beautiful realm, and many of them left the day-to-day affairs to their scribes and eunuchs. Who can blame them? This place is utterly and wholly wonderful.
Going up and down stairs was the thing to do in the Forbidden City, approaching wonderful gates, such as the Supreme Harmony Gate, the other side would open up to something even more beautiful than before. The layout of The Forbidden City is such that there are vast courtyards between the gates and buildings. These courtyards are lower than the buildings and they are paved. Throughout each building that you visit in the Palace Museum, which is at the heart of the Forbidden City, the cultural and historical and religious symbolism of China is very apparent in the beautiful and lavish art that exists on the walls, carved in stone stelae, and survives in the form of intact thrones, wooden cabinets, carved statues of the Buddha, and most apparent, the symbols of Chinese Imperial authority: The Dragon and the Phoenix. The Beijing Dragons are everywhere, and the imperial dragons were my favorites of all. Only the emperor could be associated with these gold dragons, which are the center dragon in Chinese nomenclature. China was the middle kingdom, zhong guo, the center of the world and the center of the universe. The heart of this center, the nerve center, as it were, was the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.
There was a biting south wind on this day that we visited the Forbidden City. The temperatures were awfully cold, minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, so the 30-mile per hour wind gave a wicked wind chill. There were a few tourists, mostly elderly Chinese but a few Western tourists as well, who braved this cold and chill day to see this wonder with us. Jing and I found solace on the north side of the Supreme Harmony Gate. The sun was shining nicely, and I found a spot against the wall where the sun shone down, out of the cold wind, and where there was a modern timber placed upon two ancient support stones. As we sat there, she gave this place the name of the emperors throne, or seat.
Sitting there with my beautiful Chinese companion Jing and gazing northward into the courtyard that lay out in front of us will always remain one of the chief moments of my life!
The Palace Museum is at the heart of the Forbidden City. It is called a museum, but the museums in China are different from those in the West. I expected to be able to go inside and get warm. No such luck! The doors are wide opened, and you freeze yourself down to your very bones looking at the artifacts of imperial court that lie behind glass in the modern display cases.
Upon each gate you do have the opportunity to get souvenirs. Playing cards with the emperors of China is a popular item, as are expensive trinkets of jade that you can buy elsewhere for much less, t-shirts, post cards, books, etc.
We spent the whole day at the Forbidden City, and took many photos. The cold was almost unbearable here, but the cold weather was worth enduring, to see the magnificent sites. I am sure that summertime is unbearable hot and crowded, and you could see the ice cream stands sitting there idly by as we passed and thought of the absurd notion of eating ice cream in the cold of winter.
To spend one day in the Forbidden City was wonderful, but you do not get to see everything. Many places are under conservation reconstruction, and you could not see everything in a week or a month in reality.
I am very happy to have had this opportunity to visit this wonderful world-class heritage site. I was very humbled by this privileged opportunity, and felt very moved by the whole experience.
The Forbidden City is one of the chief attractions when visiting China, and Beijing in particular. Do not miss the opportunity to see it when you are in China. It is supremely wonderful!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
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Ironcladd
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Member: James Zaworski
Location: Shenzhen, China
Reviews written: 508
Trusted by: 158 members
About Me:
I am an English teacher, Archeologist and Anthropologist.
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