Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

This morning we had meetings with our BOCOG representatives. The day was short (early afternoon), but quite productive. After the meetings, we went down to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City, or Imperial Palace, was built in the 1400s and was the residence of 24 emperors for nearly seven centuries. The Forbidden City is huge! Behind a 30 foot wall and a moat, there is a 180 acre city that at one time housed 8000-10,000 people. It's hard to imagine that ordinary people were kept outside of these walls for 500 years before it was no longer "forbidden" to the public. From outside the walls, you can see the very ornamental watchtowers. I wonder what folks envisioned were behind those walls with only the sneak peak of the watchtowers to fuel their imaginations.

Chinese currency is called renminbi ('people's money', abbreviated as RMB). RMB is based on yuan and as of the morning, there were about 8 yuans to the U.S. dollar. For about 60 yuan, I rented an audio self-guided tour headset of the Forbidden City that my American guide book said actor Roger Moore would be narrating. I didn't hear the voice of Roger Moore guiding me through the city, but the tour was still interesting anyway! The picture with the lion was taken inside the Forbidden City and the picture of the pagoda was taken just outside of it.


After touring the Forbidden City, we walked around to the South Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) to take a look at Tiananmen Square. This square isn’t called the Great Meeting Place for nothing, there were tons of people just hanging out around the South Gate. As you can see in the picture, the Gate is adorned with Mao’s portrait and the slogans: “Long live the People’s Republic of China” and “Long live the great union of the peoples of the world.” This square has seen it’s share of politically significant events over the years.

On the walk around the Forbidden City, we stumbled upon a tulip festival in one of the parks. I couldn’t resist posting this picture of some of the signs that spring is here!

OK, I present at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, so it’s time to get some shut-eye. Until tomorrow. . .