September continued to be an exciting month, and on the same week of the Mid-Autumn Festival I got the chance to visit one of the most visited attractions in the world- the Forbidden City. I went on a Saturday with a group of students from The Beijing Center. This was one of the excursions I was most looking forward to before coming to China, and it did not disappoint. I was most struck by the size of consistent detail of the palace. We kept walking from massive courtyard to massive courtyard, and it felt like it was never going to end. Every structure was at such a large scale it was impossible to capture it in a single picture. On top of this, every structure was so detailed that it left wondering how they were ever able to pull it off in the first place, especially without modern tools. Almost every structure had about a 20-foot wall as the base that was smooth and painted red. On top of this base there were massive palace structures with traditional architecture, meaning it had sweeping horizontal roofs with intricate orange tiling, wooden support with complex carvings and mythical paintings, and ancient stone flooring with unpredictable inconsistencies.
When we first arrived at Tiananmen Square, the first thing I noticed was the amount of security and the amount of people. This area is one of the most famous in the entire world, so I certainly expected there to be a lot of people. However, the nearly 10-foot wide 200-feet long line completely packed with visitors still surprised me. This made sense why there was so much security because, not only is it a very important historical site, but the number of daily visitors requires intense security. I went through at least three metal detectors and had my passport checked at least four times before enter the Forbidden City and there were cameras everywhere. However, once we were in, we could roam around as we pleased. Going in I thought only a small percentage of the Palace was open to the public, but Andy let me know that ever since a few years ago, practically all of the complex was open and we able to see almost all of the Forbidden City.
The entire palace is surrounded by a moat, with entrances on the side of each cardinal direction. When it was still being used as the primary residence for the emperor during the Qing dynasty, the emperor would enter through the front gate in the south, the empress would use the north gate, and the officials would use the smaller gates to the east and west side. We used the main entrance in the south, which immediately opened up to a massive stone courtyard with a river running through it. I was amazed at the scale of the everything, and we stopped to look at the koi fish in the river while we waited for our guide.
We met our tour guide, Tony, and he took us north through the complex, giving us details about the history behind the place. For example, we look at a giant copper pot that they used to keep water in in case of a fire. This was unsuccessful, as the palace burned down and had to be rebuilt in the 17th century. As we went north the same thing kept happening, we would walk through a big gate with massive palace buildings on top and be met with another giant courtyard with even more massive palace structures, each extremely colorful and detailed, all having their own unique purpose throughout history. This happened four or five times throughout the tour, until we made it to the north end of the palace where the emperor’s wife and concubine’s living quarters were. These were smaller courtyards and building, almost resembling the surrounding hutongs. Many have since been redesigned to be mini museums of ancient Chinese history, and we went into one about the history of Chinese instruments. We continued to visit various gardens and pagodas in the north side of the palace before leaving the Forbidden City.
However, after this came the unexpected highlight of the day, because just north of the Forbidden City is Jingshan Park, a large park area with a giant hill overlooking the palace. After digging the moat in the early 15th century, the dirt needed to go somewhere, and thus the hill at Jingshan Park was made. We climbed the hill, that also had several intricate traditional towers on it, and made our way to the lookout point on top. There were hordes of people there, but you got an amazing view to of the palace and its golden roofs. There is also a marker on top that marks the exact center of Beijing. Since it is in the middle of the oldest part of Beijing, there are very few tall buildings around, so we could see crazy views of the entire city, old and new. This was an amazing way to end the trip, getting an ariel view of the palace we visited and the city we are living in. This entire excursion surpassed all my expectations going in and has made me all that more excited about seeing more of China.
By Fall 2024 student Thomas Helm
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