China Beijing: Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, Peking Duck

Friday morning, we headed out to the Forbidden City. It was huge and magnificent and very busy!

Man cleaning the streets with a broom. We saw these brooms all over China.

We first went to the Worker's Cultural Palace which is to the east of the south portion of the Forbidden City. It was peaceful and lovely. They have a replica of the Forbidden City in miniature.

Yes, this is the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City in miniature. The real one is HUGE!

Wendy, Me and Emily

We arrived at the Forbidden City which was very busy and not so peaceful. But magnificent in its own way.

Soldiers doing a drill of some sort.

Me in the chaos before entering through the Meridian (south) Gate.

Once through the Meridian Gate, this is what awaits! (The center structure--the Hall of Supreme Harmony--is very imposing; it's a bit hard to tell with the distortion of the panorama.)

One of the side buildings

Me, Wendy, Louise and Emily with the Hall of Supreme Harmony behind us

Heading towards the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Sundial

Interesting turtle/dragon guardian of some sort.

Throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony

What the crowds are like to get the above picture. See Me?

Forbidden City was NOT wheelchair friendly. Very bumpy cobblestone that made it pretty much impossible to push without throwing Wendy from the chair. She used it as a walker instead.

Sitting elephant

Francy and Me with one of the many water vats they used to collect water in case of a fire.

This was a very important building because there are nine roof guardians. (There was always an odd number of guardians with nine being the most there would be.)

View onto the carriageway from by the Hall of Preserving Harmony.

Rain spouts

The buildings are beautiful!

We enjoyed touring the clock exhibition hall which had many interesting clocks from all over the world. It was fascinating to look at them. There was a video that showed us how some of them moved. Here are a sampling of the clocks.

Huge water clock

The man in this one can write!

This one has constellations on it.

100 foot Nine Dragon Screen. Very cool!

Close up of a couple of the dragons.

Door had 81 steel bumps (which is 9 by 9) which signifies the emperor and his power. 

We toured the Treasure Gallery. There were lots of cool things in there. Here are a few:

Throne

Always look up! Beautiful ceiling and light fixture.

Pretty cabinet of some sort

Dragon on the ceiling

Very fancy crown

Fancy dish

Globe

Interesting design

Really old rock with writing on it

Tree growing out of a rock

The theatre

Beautiful jade carving

Painting on a wall with the same wallpaper surrounding it that we saw at the Summer Palace.

There was fancy stonework on some of the pathways.

Francy met some friends!

This is where we were headed next: the Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan Park for a great view of the Forbidden City.

Louise, Me and Emily at the Wanchun Pavilion in Jingshan Park. It was a bit of a hike but we had an amazing view!

Panoramic of the Forbidden City

Forbidden City is a really huge complex!

Me with the Forbidden City behind me.

Holding up the Wanchun Pavilion.

Moat around the outside of the Forbidden City with one of the corner watchtowers.

Another view of the moat.

We walked back to the hotel which ended up being a lot longer of a walk than Google maps initially indicated. We saw some construction along the way.

We had Peking duck at Da Dong Duck Restaurant.

Me and Emily

Our utensils with a cute chopstick rest.

Yummy asparagus

Our duck

It was fascinating to watch the chef cut the duck.

All the meat, neatly cut off the duck.

The condiments we had with our duck.

One of my crepes with the duck and condiments on it. It was delicious.

Yummy fruit they brought us for dessert. It was a cross between an apple and a pear.

We walked through the night market. Live scorpion on a stick, anyone?

Sideways view of scorpions.