Monday, March 4, 2013

The Forbidden City- China Tour XV


Jai Gurudev !!

 

 
 
 
When we visited the Tinnanmen Square in the late afternoon of one weekend , we just roamed around the  place and happened to see a typical Chinese Architecture opposite to the Square , with Red colour flag posts installed in the front  .Then there was a picture of a leader hanged in the front wall , which I came to know later asthe Mao Leader , Chairman Mao .We could see his photo embossed in calendars, wall hangings , Chinese paper fans and other articles too , while shopping. T
his architecture , I just thought , an official building , something similar to the Vidhan Soudha at Bangalore . And we returned back after taking a trip at Tinnanmen Square not showing much interest to visit this architecture . One thing caught my attention was , huge flocks of people were seen moving to this place , which induced interest in that architecture.
The next weekend , we planned  to visit another famous tourist spot at Beijing  , that is "The Forbidden City "  . When we searched for the train route , it indicated the same spot , "The Tinnanmen Square" .
The Entrance to the Forbidden City is nothing but that  same old architecture hosting the  Mao leader's photo ,which came as little surprise indeed !!
 
  We never thought , Forbidden City would be such a Big place , which we have ever seen in our life. In fact it is a Chinese Palace , which comprises of many palatial buildings in series . We need to walk and walk  to just have a quick glimpse of it. If we want to see the things in detail , then a full day is not sufficient to appreciate it's significance , I guess.
People both Chinese and foreigners come in huge crowds to visit this place. The entrance is really attractive  with colurful flowers welcoming us. We need to pay a lumpsum entry ticket fee of about Rs.500 in Indian currency .
At the entrance, before the ticket counter , on the way , a wall size mirror fixed on the building attracted us , where we can see our own picture in the photograph we take.
 
There are several palatial buildings lined up one after another in series , with lengthy space in between , named as Palace of Tranquil Longevity , Palace of Supreme Tranquility , Palace of Heavenly Purity , Hall of Supreme Harmony , Hall of Preserving Harmony etc. There were also shrines seen among the bulidings . The emperors seemed to have lived in those buildings. I wonder , how many people are required maintain that place.
 
The thrones , the courts , the giant sized Urns , used for cooking purpose or boiling water was also spotted . There was an attractive Lion statue with the Chinese get up ,guarding one of the buildings inside .
 
By the time , we moved from the entrance to exit , we got exhausted, our energy level drained , partly because of the bright sunny weather too  . At the exit side  , we could see a huge water body surrouding the palace , perhaps constructed for safety reasons of the emperors.
In fact ,we covered only a part of the Forbidden City , another part , with terrace garden stuffs , we omitted for obvious reasons of time insufficiency .
 
The name - Forbidden is very apt , we have to call it a city , indeed  !!



Love & smiles...
 

2 comments:

  1. The Forbidden City has a great history. Indeed you can consider yourself lucky to have visited this place. If you get an opportunity to watch the movie 'The Last Emperor' by Bernardo Bertolucci, you would appreciate this even better (having been to this place).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes , I shall do that !!
    Thanks for the info..

    ReplyDelete

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