Forbidden City 紫禁城 Part1

The first day when my mother and I reached Beijing, we took express train to the city from the airport terminal 3. When I look around the city from the train, it is so beautiful. There are trees along the road, farms located round the countryside. The air in the morning is fresh and mist cover around the earth. Our trip in Beijing started with the well-known Forbidden City (故宫).

We stayed in Golden Palace Silver Street Hotel(金府银街大酒店) for the whole journey in Beijing. The hotel is at the east of the Forbidden City and near by the Wangfujing  (王府井) Shopping Street. Before we check in to hotel, we had steamed bun and dumpling for breakfast.

The HangZhou Steam Bun Shop

Steam bun and Dumpling

After checked in to the hotel, we took a walk to the main entrance of the Forbidden City, the Meridian Gate (午门). On the way, we passed by the East Glorious Gate (东华门) of the palace. There are lot of hawkers selling honeydew at this gate. Eating a stick of the long and sweet honeydew in the hot summer day can quench the heat and thirsty.

The East Glorious Gate

Willows by the Moat

Moat is surrounding the palace and willows sleep by the moat. This scenery is beautiful and only can be felt with your own eyes.

The Meridian Gate

In the afternoon, the city gets hot and hazy but the people visiting the Forbidden City do not get reduced. We spent around 20min to get the entrance tickets. The Meridian Gate has five arches. The centre arch is for exit purpose; and the other two next to the centre arch are for entrance. There is security check at the entrance, begs are scanned.

The Gate of Supreme Harmony

Behind the Meridian Gate, that is the Gate of Supreme Harmony (太和门). It is tall and painting is on the ceiling and beam, none of the spot is left blacked. The colour of painting on this gate is well maintained. After this gate, that is the Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿). The hall is a building by itself. It is big and three levels up on the sky. The emperor’s seat is well kept in the hall. I spent tremendous efforts to get myself into the crowd to snap a picture of the seat.

The Emperor's Seat

The three Halls of Harmony

Behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony, there are another two halls, the Hall of Central Harmony (中和殿) and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿). The paintings on these building are not repainted, and the original colour is almost gone.

The roof is the nicest part of the hall. The speciality is on roof levelling. The outer layers is yellow tile, and then follow by square shape of long wood, then round shape… Under these three layers is few layers of cow-face kind a structure. Then after that is the beam of the building.

The Hall's Roof

Cow-face Structure

The palace is really huge. The previous paragraphs are just about the journey to the outer court (south) of the Forbidden City. In part 2, I will continue on the inner court, north of the palace, goes into the ‘house’ of the emperor and his wives.

Travel Tips:

The entrance ticket price:
RMB60, 1st April - 31th October
RMB40, 1st November - 31th March

Opening hour:
8.30 - 17.00, 1st April - 31th October
8.30 - 16.30, 1st November - 31th March

Last entry:
16.10, 1st April - 31th October
15.40, 1st November - 31th March

Entrance:
The Maridian Gate (South Gate)
The Gate of Divine Might (North Gate)

More History Information can search from wikipedia for english, from BaiDuBaiKe (百度百科) for chinese.