Day 119
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Forbidden City, Beijing (Peking) China
We started the day with a long (4h) bus ride to Bejing.
Halfway there we stopped for authentic Chinese lunch. It was good but it took way too long. That’s the problem with feeding several hundred people at the same time.
When we finally arrived in Bejing it was already afternoon and it was busy.
Driving through Bejing was actually pleasant. We saw many interesting, famous places like Tianamen Square for example. Too bad we didn’t have time to stop there.
The Forbidden City - one of the great wonders of the world, is a destination that foreign, as well as Chinese, travelers love to explore. It attracts about 80,000 visitors per day.
I was overwhelmed by the amazing architecture and the work that was put into it.
For over 600 years, the high vermillion walls of Beijing’s Forbidden City hid the secrets of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Built between 1406 and 1420, the Forbidden City took over one million laborers and approximately 100,000 architects, engineers, artisans, and craft people to complete.
The palace of the Forbidden City is China 's largest and most significant ancient complex and covers 74 hectares. It consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,886 rooms.
Today the not so forbidden city is the world's largest museum with over 19 million visits a year.
The Forbidden City is a “must see” site in Beijing.
After visiting the Forbidden City we drove to the restaurant to have dinner.
Dinner was another two hour event with many dishes that were delicious but by the time we got them on our table most of the food was cold unfortunately. Again large group of several hundreds people.
After dinner we went to see the Great Wall of China.
Interesting fact about the Forbidden City:
Chinese people prefer to call it the Purple Forbidden City. This is because in Chinese legend the King of Heaven, the Jade Emperor (the Supreme Deity of Taoism), supposedly lived in a Purple palace.
