Its Forbidden!...

Hello! and HI!

 Here I am on the top of the Tienanmen Gate.  You can see an awful lot of history up here. One thing about China is: its not lacking in grandeur. And its a beautiful day, lets go see some stuff and enjoy it...

From the gate, all of Tienanmen lies before you; mobs of people, purty red flags, gigantic lcd screens boasting propaganda and/or gorgeous destinations to visit in China and the most recent government suggestions for life, Mao's tomb, and it goes on forever.  Under and through the gate goes 3.5 kilometers of palaces and museums and  imperial gardens of the Forbidden City.

I went on this little in-city-center-adventure on a Sunday.  It was a little busy (read with full on sarcasm)  but, once in the Forbidden City the mass of  tourists filter through the center in a globular form (the Chinese love to stay together/be in large groups/be seen) leaving many areas of this expansive palace museum virtually empty. Spread out in extravagant malls (under which is 13 crosswise layers of brick built one on top of the other to prevent any invaders who may want to come up through the ground of the palace...paranoid much...), there are stairs on top of stairs and palaces of clocks and watches and beautifully intricate animal statues protecting the emperor from all sorts of emperor like afflictions.

The statues represent safety and security for the palaces laid behind them.  Don't mess with this palace, it is a maze and a fortress of epic proportions.  I barely saw a blink of it in the several hours wandering about.

Wandering this historic palace one can't help but imagine elaborately costumed emperors of the ancient Ming dynasty.  I can see the colors and hear the wide silence this palace must have been accustomed to.  You see, back in the day, not so many people where allowed in here: the emperor, princes, select officials, concubines and servants.  Well, there were not as many people around here in the  1420's as there are now...its getting a little crowded, time to find a little hole-in-the-wall spot to get some stir-fry cabbage and rice.  "May you have happy appetite,"my waiter says to me,  and I do. Oh, happy day.