The Forbidden City

07/08/13

After our exciting trip to the supermarket we headed to bed pretty early. Unfortunately we were wide awake but this did have its advantages – there was some serious thunder and lightning going on outside our apartment block! Despite the lack of sleep we were up quite early so we decided to head in to Beijing. While we live in Beijing, the place is so huge that our area is called Shijingshan and Beijing city centre is about 30 minutes away on the subway. With our newly purchased travel cards we went to the subway, which is only a two minute walk from our apartment. It’s fairly similar to the tube in London but you do have to put your bags through an x-ray machine which I thought would hold everyone up but it didn’t make much of a difference.

  

Luckily we got off at the right stop and headed past Tian’anmen Square and in to the Forbidden City. The place was absolutely packed with Chinese tourists but there were very few whities to be found which surprised me as this is the biggest tourist sport in Beijing. According to my Lonely Planet the Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world and was home to 24 Chinese emperors, spanning two complete dynasties and more than 500 years. One thing I noticed was that the signs were pretty rubbish and most lacked English but we persevered and decided to pay the extra for audio headsets which ended up being a massive waste of £8 as mine didn’t even work! The Forbidden City itself was pretty impressive and while I did try to get a few snaps, it was a very overcast day and as I haven’t actually figured out any of the settings on my camera the place might look a bit rubbish! Thankfully it’s only £6 to get in so we’ll definitely be back for a better nosey!

The Gate of Heavenly Peace - leading to the Forbidden City

Stone guardians

I'm pretty sure Mulan ran up those steps...

A pair of guardians

Apparently this kneeling Elephant shows the power of the Emperor - even Elephants kneel to him, despite it being anatomically impossible.

Standing outside the Forbidden City, looking across the moat and at a watch tower

The huge wall that surrounds the Forbidden City

These stones were carved to look like dragons playing in the water - water flowed down them and the Emperor and his chums used to climb up them for the craic

One of the Emperor's thrones

Old and new in Beijing

There are over 1000 dragon heads - they acted as the drainage system with water coming out through their mouth

A close up view of the roof guardians

After having a good walk around the Forbidden City we left and explored the surrounding area. Eventually we found a pretty central area and after basking in the western joy of consumerism we ducked down a side street where we saw some pretty cool stuff, namely gross food! What was even worse was that the scorpions were still alive and squirming around with their little stingers going like crazy! I never thought I’d feel sorry for a scorpion!

Scorpion on a stick

Downtown Beijing

Bicycles in Beijing

Speaking of duck, Beijing, formerly Peking, is famous for its Peking duck. Lonely Planet recommended DaDong Roast Duck Restaurant so when we spotted it we went in and took a seat. Only then were we shown the price. While I’m sure the duck was worth 288RMB, about £28, we have had an expensive few days so we promptly ran back out of the restaurant and found something a little cheaper. We ordered one beef hot pot, one fried rice and one portion of dumplings and there was so much food! The beef “brisket” hot pot was Rory’s idea and despite my reservations it looked pretty cool when it arrived. However, it didn’t look like brisket, it looked like offal. I’m pretty sure that we were eating some gross offal innards but it was actually quite nice. I’m clearly getting more adventurous in my old age! 

Weird beef and loafs of rice

Dumplings

After our exciting dinner we took the subway back home and spent the evening relaxing! When we start working I doubt we’ll have as much time for adventures so hopefully we can fit in a few more before then!