The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City, situated in the heart of Beijing, was the home to 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There is much to see and you can spend days walking through this imperial city imagining what life might have been like when the emperor still walked the courtyards. But what I most enjoyed were all the details and of course the mythical creatures. Because of all the grandeur it's easy to overlook the crazy ceilings of the palace interiors. I can't fathom how long it must have taken to carve and paint some of them. Anyway, here are a few things you'll see while strolling.

Detail from large water containers which were there in case of a fire.

The ceiling in the palace of Heavenly Purity

In each of the four corners of the garden there is a pavilion, symbolizing the four seasons. This is part of the ceiling of the pavilion of Myriad Spring

You will find this motive on a bunch of doors and walls.

Decorative glazed ceramic details


Easy to miss but if you look closely you'll find these small engravings with different motives on several walls.

A gilded lion in front of the palace of Tranquil Longevity

Beijing 2009

It was insanely hot in Beijing, everyday was around 100 degrees. The pollution didn't help either, nevertheless I did love Beijing. I was there once before, in 1984, I was just a teenager. The main thing I remember was that everybody was on bicycles. There were hardly any cars at all. A lot has changed. It is now a major city and everybody drives a car, although I'd like to point out there were no ridiculous SUVs.

If you're interested in seeing the hot spots of Beijing then you might as well just surf the Internet. Everything has been already photographed a million times. So I'm just going to post a few pictures of things I liked and then in another post put up some details and patterns of things I saw in the Forbidden City. I really enjoyed the decorative aspect of the palaces.

This is the view from the apartment. Direct view on the Bird's Nest stadium. Pictures can't do this structure justice. It is an amazing piece of architecture.

The Dragon Building.

The National Grand Opera House in Beijing. What an impressive site. The contrast to the surrounding buildings was stark. If you turned your head just a bit to the right you saw what's in the next picture. A simple residential area.


A guard in Tiananmen Square. To enter the huge square you have to pass a security check similar to that of an airport. The same type of guard you will find placed all over Beijing.

Anybody who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of theater and opera so when I had a chance to go see the traditional Beijing opera I was quite excited. This is a shot I took in the Beijing opera (or Peking opera). The Beijing opera is a form of traditional Chinese theater which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. The performances are usually based on Chinese folklore. The character above is Sun Wukong also known as the Monkey King. He is the main character in the epic novel Journey to the West. Check out the make up job, very inspiring.