Inside Beijing's Forbidden City

The Forbidden City in China explored

The Forbidden City off Tiananmen Square in Beijing was the Imperial Palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty and now houses the Palace Museum. Named as a World Heritage site in 1987 and listed as the largest collection of preserved ancient wood structures in the world, for over 500 years it was 'home' for the emperors and their households. It also acted as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government. <br/><br/> You can enter the Forbidden City at the Tiananmen Gate just off Tiananmen Square. There were two entrances to The Forbidden City on my visit. One sign posted 'Chinese' and the other simply 'Foreigners'. The foreigners entrance fee being considerably higher than that of the Chinese one I would imagine. Once inside the Forbidden City you could purchase a set of earphones and a recorded narrative in your language of interesting facts to listen to as you progressed around the city. <br/><br/> In my case the narrator was Sean Connery which seemed quite amusing at the time. You needed to give a member of staff a credit card (not the credit card number, the actual credit card) as security that you would return the equipment. I gave the chap a Tesco club card which he seemed happy with. He then ran from the front entrance all the way to the exit gate, which was some distance, in order to leave the card for me to collect when I was leaving. I am sure that they will have found a simpler system than this by now! <br/><br/> Once inside The Forbidden City you needed no narrative to point you to interesting facts as the whole city is full of amazing architecture and treasures as well as mystery and legend. It is truly a remarkable place that to try and describe it in this short article would be an injustice. You are truly in awe of everything that you see and what the Chinese endured to produce this most magnificent palace. <br/><br/> Hopefully I have inspired you to go and visit The Forbidden City for yourself and next time I will discuss how it felt to actually stand on The Great Wall of China and other experiences on my trip. Next time: On the Great Wall of China – a childhood dream becomes a reality.

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