forbidden city China inside courtyard

the forbidden city was full of such courtyards for good reason.
If an enemy got past the outer walls they were still trapped in these courtyards and the archers could shoot down on them


terra cotta army as found when dug out

under repair

horses as well

back street in china

exercising

one entrance to summer palace

only emperor and emperess allowed through central arch and between central walkway. nyone crossing it lost their heads


what does a chinese urn? look like

temple of heaven

inside and whole structure is made out of wood

Emperor stood here to pray to heaven . everyone nearby could hear due to the area

chinese back street

rich peoples family transport

throne in temple of heaven

stone replic of wooden ship used my governess Chi Chi (pronounced si si) who killed one emporers childern so she retained her authority

chinese musicians, for their own pleasure

back to forbidden city and one of only 2 in the world still will work. an urn

only view point for the empress to look outside the forbidden city

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

The only one in the world that has jade set into glass and it is or was not known how theancient chinese did it

A kylin

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

Thank you for sharing .

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

Eliza

Pleasure, i don't think many members have been to China hence posting only a few of many photos, from stretching silk to inside a gold leafed palace where we had a 16 course lunch- to the buddist temple not forgetting the great wall of course. and several other places as well.

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

Thank you RS. Nearest thing I've got to China is a chinese tattoo on my shoulder. Would love to visit.

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

Alice

All i can say is I would love to go back and spend at least a month there. We only just touched the main "tourist " sites in Bejing and Zian. it is so different from the western world and absolutely fascinating . Also the people are so friendly, or at least were to us, but having a tour guide is essential. We had our own and car and driver to get us about.

To give some idea how kind they are the tour guide at the end of the holiday asked if we enjoyed and Sue said the bed was a bit lumpy and the tour guide burst into tears. We said we didn't mind and she was not to get upset about it. we went with a company called Oriental Travel. what a great company, they wanted our passports for the visa and we sent it by royal mail registered post. We had it back the same week stamped up, you honestly can't ask for better.

Ok it was not the cheapest way to see china we could have gone "cattle class" on aircraft and coaches, but i felt sorry for those that did.

Why

At the great Wall they stepped out of the coach onto the wall and gave no indication of what it was all about. Our tour company took us right out the the mountains and we had to get a ski lift up to the wall

half way up looking down on the bazaar

and upwards

height about 3000ft+then walked along to the sentry box in pic

oh and tour guide

Part of the wall walk as far as you can see, and exhausting because of thin air at this height

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

Sounds so interesting.

Oh dear. That was a very compassionate tour guide. How touching!

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

we had one in Bejing and another in Zain as it was a plane flight between both places. Added photos. China on the left and mongolia on the right of the wall.I didn't have a camcorder back then and this is one of the reasons I got one

Alice we were treated like gods, we asked the driver and guide to join us for meals but out of respect that ate by themselves.

never known such courtesy

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

Great photos, thank you so much! China definitely on my bucket list.

Re: forbidden city China inside courtyard

On my bucket list too, Char