Forbidden

The Forbidden City:
When we arrived at the Forbidden city gates, it was about noon, so we decided it would be best to eat some lunch first. The only food establishment we saw was packed, but we were starving, so we packed ourselves in anyway. I lucked out and found a table while Cullen got the food. It was a 4 seat table, but that didn't matter. The locals are not too shy to sit down next to you,and they did. Two men with their rice and meat dishes sat down next to me. Cullen was having issues with people jumping ahead of him in line, and by the time he arrived with the food, the two men next to me were done eating. The ate so fast I couldn't believe it.

A child started screaming from the back of the restaurant, his displeasure pouring down his screwed up face. The scream didn't stop from the time the men left to the time we left. He couldn't have been more than 1 and 1/2 years old.

Having been rushed in and out of the feed-lot, we poured out into the wide open space of the entry way to Beijing's famous tourist attraction, the Forbidden City. And with such prestige comes all the vendors and tourist wares imaginable. There were hats, key-chains, your name on a grain of rice, artists, belts, everything. Fleeing quickly past all the vendors trying to sell books or post cards of the Forbidden city in all the languages... we made it to the ticket booth. Passing through the gates into the Forbidden city was a relief. The crowd thinned, and the exploration began.

We went to look at the old ceramics first. the floors in the building were all tiled with cut and shaped tiles. The colors and the vibrancy of the floors, ceilings, and walls was impressive. The pottery, some of it even 8000 years old, was encapsulated in glass cases with touch screens in front of them to convey the usage and creation details of each piece.

We went from the ceramics exhibit into a maze of amazing structures. Each was large and ornate. All of the doors had embellishments. Most of them were metal dragons, symbolizing the Emperor. The few that had the metal Phoenix on them were doors for the Empress. Large bronze sculptures were everywhere. There was a turtle, Dragons, Lions, Cranes, and even Peacocks. Each building had the expected ceramic tile roofs, but they also had small animals and such on each corner of each building roof.

I believe, in the 4 hours we spent in the maze of buildings, we managed to see half of it. We will be going back. Among the rewards are about 500 photos that, with any luck, at least half will turn out well.

After our exploration of the forbidden city, we had some dinner at... Outback Steakhouse. The prices come out to about the same, and the food is just as good as it is in the states. Nothing to complain about here.

****The Forbidden City is indeed better than it's website.*********