November 22nd - The Forbidden City (Eric)

It's been an action packed series of days so far. Everything has gone really smoothly and a continuous stream of reunions of kids who haven't seen each other for a while. It is cold, around 32 degrees, but sunny and dry. It is the dry season here in Beijing right now.

Lily and I are blogging every day, but a day to a day and a half behind. By the time we get back to our hotel, eat dinner, download pics, edit pics and settle down, it's almost time to go to bed.
We will probably not get a chance to blog tomorrow because of our schedule, so there may be a few entries after we get to Chongqing.

Today we decided to go to the temple of heaven. We walked on our own from the Hotel which is always fun. It was not too crowded (from what we had heard), but there were people everywhere.

We got our tickets and headed into the Forbidden city. It is immense. It was a little hard to grapple with the size of it all together. It looks like it is close to 1km in length and maybe 800m in width. As we walked in, it is broken up into sections down the middle and then left and right. Each area has a specific purpose and meaning. I won't get into all of that,since there isn't enough room in the blog for that.

[ A quick shot of LeAnne and her grandma Kay (I may have the name wrong here)]

[Kathlene folds up her fancy map and gives me the 'forced smile']

The girls were all having a great time. There was a lot of room to run around and be goofy off on the side areas.

[Chessie, Mya and Sophie ham it up for a shot that Lily was taking]

A broad picture as you enter off on the left side.

As we were walking, I started thinking about who's feet has trod these same stones over the years. At over 600 hundred years old, it makes you wonder.

Some interesting reflections off of the mote that runs through the first section.

Coming down over the first section and looking across. I will label these properly when I get a chance.

Dragon spouts in a row.

The doors are interesting. 9 was a sacred (? - maybe it was longevity or something else, I need to ask again) number that was reserved for imperial use only. Many of the doors and other parts of the architecture utilize very specific sets of numbered items, doors, archways, stones, etc ... In this case, there were 9 buttons across the door and 9 rows.

Sophie and Lily checking out one of the cauldrons that were set around the Forbidden City in case of fire. They would have been filled with water back in the day.

The girls were taking a quick snack break about 1/2 way through. It was a beautiful sunny day.

One of the bed chambers.

A small temple in the garden on the North end of the Forbidden City.

A dragon getting his reflection.

Closeup of the details around the door handles

Now the group size has gotten quite large. 43 families, with close to 130 people. We have been working around getting to know a lot of new people at breakfast, lunch and during the tours.

Tomorrow we will be involved in a presentation with some of the foreign officials. We are one of the largest groups returning at the same time that they have hosted. We will also be seeing the site of the 08 Olympics and the Great Wall of China.

More blogging sometime in the next 48 hours.

Ciao - Eric