The Forbidden City, so named as this is what it was to the common man in ancient China: forbidden. The first photo shows the river surrounding the city, keeping the ruling class in and everyone else out. Tiananmen Square marks the entrace to the South gate. My hosts and I discussed the 1989 student riots; I shared that most Americans have one image when they hear of Tiananmen Square: one man standing in front of one tank. Mao's portrait is watching over me as we entered. As we entered one of the doors, Mr. Jian Li and I are touching the nine across and nine down knobs: good luck you know. Nine is a very important number and nine across and nine down (81) is very lucky. Luck is discussed everywhere. Mr. Li made sure that we progressed on the east side of each building as we toured only part of the structures in the middle section (the east and west sides are for my next trip :)
Most of the statues and ornaments that you see in the pictures are made of gold. One photo of the red "spread" (as Grammie would call it) was on the emperess's bed. The final photo shows we sneaking behind a group photo; nope, I have no idea who these people are ...
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