Another Amazing Day

This was a very interesting day.  We began by visiting with some individuals from the United States Embassy and they were very professional, informative and personable.  One question we asked was how do our students get a job as a foreign service officer and they told us the new exam stresses writing and just being informed, especially reading journals like the Economist.  After that we went to the Forbidden City which was impressive.  Lying at the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City, called Gu Gong in Chinese, was the imperial palace for twenty-four emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was first built throughout 14 years during the reign of Emperor Chengzu  in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Ancient Chinese Astronomers believed that the Purple Star (Polaris) was in the center of heaven and the Heavenly Emperor lived in the Purple Palace. The Palace for the emperor on earth was so called the Purple City. It was forbidden to enter without special permission of the emperor. Hence its name 'The Purple Forbidden City', usually 'The Forbidden City'.

Now known as the Palace Museum, it is to the north of Tiananmen Square. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers about 180 acres.  It is surrounded by a wide moat and a high wall and there are more than 8,700 rooms. The wall has a gate on each side. Opposite the Tiananmen Gate, to the north is the Gate of Divine Might (Shenwumen), which faces Jingshan Park. 

The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The southern section, or the Outer Court was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation. The northern section, or the Inner Court was where he lived with his royal family. Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, it houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987, the Palace Museum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions world-wide.

Construction of the palace complex began in 1407, the 5th year of the Yongle reign of the third emperor (Emperor Chengzu, Zhu Di) of the Ming dynasty. It was completed fourteen years later in 1420, and then the capital city was moved from Nanjing to Beijing the next year. It was said that a million workers including one hundred thousand artisans were driven into the long-term hard labor. Stone needed was quarried from Fangshan, a suburb of Beijing. It was said a well was dug every fifty meters along the road in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice into the city. Huge amounts of timber and other materials were freighted from faraway provinces.

Ancient Chinese people displayed their very considerable skills in building the Forbidden City. Take the grand red city wall for example. It has an 8.6 meters wide base reducing to 6.66 meters wide at the top. The angular shape of the wall totally frustrates attempts to climb it. The bricks were made from white lime and glutinous rice while the cement is made from glutinous rice and egg whites. These incredible materials make the wall extraordinarily strong.

After that we were supposed to go to a park, but instead ended up going to The Eastern Chinese Medicine Clinic for a checkup, they take your pulse and tell you what ails you; I was fine, just getting older, and then we had a foot massage, which was wonderful.   We also went to a fine jewelry store where my husband bought me a very nice black pearl necklace and matching ear rings, though he does not know it yet.  We ended the day by going to a Peking duck dinner, which included taking Peking duck and using spring onions and something like tortillas you make a wrap.  We leave Beijing tomorrow for Xian, China and I am anxious to see that city.