May 1st, 2005
Built in 1406-1420, the Forbidden city was the Imperial Palace for the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is the world’s largest palace with 9,999 rooms and halls. The walls surrounding the complex are over 10 feet wide 30 feet high surrounded by a moat.
Ordinary men were not allowed into the city thus creating the name “Forbidden City”.
The forbidden city was easily recognizable from the movie “The Last Emperor”. I didn’t realize the magnitude of the complex. There is gate after gate, building after building with six palaces, three were used for ceremonial and three were private. I could have spent a better part of the day there, unfortunately, we didn’t have the time.
As we went through gate after gate, we finally got to the inner palace where the Royal families lived and today there is a Starbucks. Â There is something fundamentally wrong with that.
What a long day, or was it two days merged into one? It didn’t take much to fall asleep that night.
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