China Pics - Part Trois

Here are the pictures of the Forbidden City I said I would post yesterday. And, yes, I am looking up the french numbers to post in my title, because I only took a single semester of french in 7th grade, so I have absolutely no idea what the numbers are in that language. Makes me sound a little cooler though, right? ;-)



Anyway, this is a picture of the entrance to the Forbidden City. Right under the picture of Mao.

As you can, there were a lot of people there that day.

Here's Pete by a lion. He said there are lions at the entrance of nearly everything in China. The male lion has his paw on a ball and the female lion has a paw on a baby.

This picture reminds me of the final part of Mulan. :-) Isn't it majestic though? Just amazingly beautiful. Much of the Forbidden City has been restored and, again, you see all the beautiful, vibrant colors of the place. This was the main hall of the emperor.

This is the same building, a little closer up.

This is a lantern.

Of course, there are many, many dragons all around China. You would find them on roof tops edges and as cornices like here.

Pete took this picture for Livie, since she likes turtles. I remember Madie used to love turtles when she was a baby and would call them "turrrrrrrrrrr" and really roll that last "r". :-)

This is a large jug that they would keep water in in case there was a fire. In the winter they would cover them with quilts to keep the water from freezing. If you read the history of this place, much of it burnt down at some point or other and had to be rebuilt.

You can see how this one has been restored, because the colors are bright. A couple pictures down from here you can see it has NOT been restored, because it's much duller.

This is the inside of the building above.

Another lion. Here you see the ball under his paw like I mentioned earlier.

This is the one that hasn't been restored. Still quite beautiful though. So, those are pictures from the Forbidden City. That was the first place Pete visited when he arrived in Beijing, before he even went down to Tianjin. What a great way to start off a visit to China. I think that place is just absolutely amazing and so rich with history.