July 28 - The Forbidden City

July 28:  Final Day Of The Trip - The Forbidden City

It's hard to believe that we've been gone nearly a full month now since we left Fort Lauderdale for Saigon and our initial SE Asia cruise, but today marks the final day of the Viking "Imperial Jewels of China" adventure. We left the hotel around 8:15 am with our destination just up the road - the historic Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. We arrived within twenty minutes and it was already SOOOO crowded. Very much like our stop at the museum in Shanghai the lines for individuals visiting were just unbelievable...but for us, as guests of Viking River Cruises we were through the gates, passed security and on the square within minutes. I get the whole "explore on your own" concept, but we've been soooo many places that if you were not with a tour you either would have missed what was truly significant and/or would have had such a long wait to see the sites. So happy to be so well taken care of by our favorite cruise line! As we walked around Tianamen Square and our guide Iowa was pointing out the various buildings, I just couldn't help but think of all that had happened RIGHT HERE in the past fifty years, and here we are! (Below is our name in Chinese characters as written by our guide in our Great Wall of China book)

And as I looked at the spot on the square where the students had protested in the eighties, our guide began telling us about he WAS one of those students as an 18-year-old. Made it seem even more significant to us. The square itself was surrounded by buildings of note, including Chairman Mao's masoleum, but we just walked from one end to the other while listening to commentary. The real highlight of the day would be walking from one end to the other of the Forbidden City. Several of us were chatting as we were waiting for a brief "free time" period to end and we remarked who amazing it was that in OUR lifetime no Westerner would have been permitted where we were about to go - AND as one of the gals remarked (Mary), even if we could have come then we would never have wanted to put ourselves at risk like that. And yet, here we were on the brink of walking through the gate to the Forbidden City, right underneath the huge portrait of Chairman Mao where he'd proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China and changed the face of history for this huge nation.

It was interesting as we approached the gate that very often Chinese families, especially teens and or families with small children would run up to us and pose for photos either in front of us or with us. I put two such pictures above - one with a group of our fellow guests & Kim, and a set of Chinese twin sisters we encountered. I asked Iowa what was the big deal because obviously this place was just full of tourists. And he explained that most of the Chinese here were NOT from Beijing, but were from the outer countryside and we were probably the FIRST foreigners they'd ever seen in person. We were all instant celebrities! As we walked through the first gate I mistakenly thought, "Here we are, inside the Forbidden City!" But as I was soon to find out, there are NINE gates to this historic site, not just one. And after walking virtually non-stop for the next hour and a half we were only halfway through the complex! I took well over 80 shots today but I narrowed it down to very few because no matter how many photos I put on this page you simply cannot imagine how impressive and huge the Forbidden City was. And to think this was the home to one man, the Emporer of China. AND it wasn't until 1925 that anyone other than the Emporer, his family and court had ever set foot inside here.....and not until the 1970s that any Westerner had ever been permitted in here. Just wow. It was truly a breath-taking experience to see the architecture and to imagine who'd walked in the very spot we were walking today. We had heard the stories while we were here of "The Dragon Lady" who virtually ran the country from behind the scenes through three different young emporers, and we got to walk around the courtyard that was her residence. Just a couple of noteworthy things from the photos below and then I'll encourage you to watch the highlight videos from today, especially "Part 4" of the series which is an extended video, to get some idea of what we saw. The group shot below was on a bridge over a small canal within the third layer of the Forbidden City that our guide Iowa was THE ideal photo op. So the three couples that have become such fast friends posed together. On the collage below this photo, the lower left shows the corner of one of the buildings - I took this because it has seven sculpted animals. This is significant because the animals were believed to bring good luck to whoever and whatever happened inside this building. But there are "only seven" because it was only an "official court building." Twelve characters were on the corners of only one building, the official residence of the emporer! The next photo is characteristic of most of the wooden structures within the complext. Note all the yellow roof tiles on all the buildings. Yellow is the symbol of earth to the ancient Chinese and the most sacred center of the universe was earth, so all of the buildings with the Forbidden City - where the emporer lived - would have yellow roofs. The next picture is from the garden, the final stop at the back of the city as we walked through it; and the final photo shows Kim and I about midway through the city along with a stone carving. It's difficult to tell from the photo, but this is the largest single stone carving within the city and it's of the most revered being, the dragon, THE symbol of China! Today was just an amazing day and a great way to end the trip!