Beijing Trip (Jun 2016) - Forbidden City
On our second last day in Beijing, we popped by the Forbidden City. The palace was home to 2 dynasties of Chinese emperors (Ming and Qing) and was the political centre of China for almost 500 years.
If you ask me, this is definitely one of the must-goes of Beijing. Be prepared to dedicate a full day here if you plan to finish walking it. Consisting of multiple buildings, the entire palace covers an area of 180 acres, excluding the Tiananmen Square.
History of Forbidden City
The English name "Forbidden City" stemmed from the original name of the palace 紫禁城 (Zi Jin Cheng, which loosely translated to the Purple Forbidden City). The word Purple refers to the North Star or 紫微星 (Ziwei star). In Chinese astrology, the North Star refers to the home of the Celestial Emperor. Hence, the Forbidden City, which is home to the Chinese emperor, referred to as the earthly counterpart. Jin, refers to Forbidden, meant that no one was allowed to enter or leave the palace without the permission of the emperor. And Cheng, which refers to a city, probably to illustrate the size of the grounds.
Prior to the 14th century, the capital of China was in Nanjing instead. Yongle emperor , 3rd emperor of the Ming dynasty shifted the capital to Beijing and ordered the construction of the Forbidden City, which took a grand total of 14 years. The move was motivated by a variety of reasons - including that 1) Yongle Emperor of Prince of Yan (Beijing) before being passed the throne and he had wanted to be nearer to his personal connections and 2) that Beijing itself held 2 dragon veins (龙脉) of China - the earth dragon and the water dragon. Forbidden City was constructed to sit right on the earth dragon vein. Ancient Chinese believes that the central axis (or dragon vein) is the royal line and according to Chinese traditions, it is a fixed axis. Traditional thinking believes that the North-South axis coincides with the Earth's meridian. Given that the emperors in those days believe they are centre of the world (which also refers to China's Chinese name as middle kingdom), they believe that their palaces should be built on it.
An image I got off the net, the grey squarish building at the bottom of the image is YongDingMen or Yong Ding Gate (south point of the central axis of Beijing), passes through the Tiananmen Square, Wu Men (午门) - which is the southernmost gate of Forbidden City, continues through Forbidden City until it reaches the northern point of the palace at Shen Wu Men (神武门) and then passes through the Longevity Pavilion, atop the Prospect Hill and ends at the Drum and Bell Towers. The entire axis is 7.8 kilometres. It is the longest and most well preserved central axis in the world.
Forbidden City is a rectangle, almost 1 kilometre and 800 metres from south to north, and east to west, respectively. It consist of 980 surviving buildings and 8,886 rooms. It's rumoured to contain 9,999 rooms though there are no concrete evidence to prove that. Till today, the central north-south axis remains the central axis of Beijing - and the ring roads in Beijing are built with Tiananman square/Forbidden City as the centre.
This is a rough map of the Forbidden City where you can see at the bottom (southern end of the palace) indicates "A" - that is the Meridien Gate (午门). It is the largest gate in the palace and considered the entrance. As a visitor, this is where you will enter the Forbidden City as well.
The dotted red line in the middle of the map depicts where the Outer Court (lower portion) and Inner Court (top portion) is. Outer court refers to areas where the emperor conducts his morning court sessions, banquets and ceremonies. Inner court refers to areas associated with the domestic affairs of the imperial family - where the empress and the concubines live.
"B" refers to the Shen Wu Men (神武门 or Gate of Divine Might), the northern end of the palace. It was previously called Xuan Wu Men (玄武门), however, when Emperor Kangxi (whose birth name is Xuan Ye - 玄烨) ascended the throne, the usage of Xuan became a naming taboo. This gate was then renamed then and stayed till today. This is now the exit for tourists.
"C" and "D" refers to the West and East Glorious Gates. In the beginning of Qing dynasty, only cabinet officials were allowed to pass through this gate. Mid Emperor Qianlong's reign, aged first and second degree officials were allowed. The coffins of Qing emperors, empresses, regents also went through this gate. This gave rise to its other name Gui Men (鬼门 or Ghost Gate) - which probably explained why it had 8 door nails instead of 9 like the rest.
"E" refers to the corner towers which serve more for security and defense purposes. The blue portions surrounding the palace is the moat - which makes it impossible to cross without bridging it. This was as well, for security reasons.
"F" refers to Tai He Men (太和门 or Gate of Supreme Harmony). It is considered the second major gate of the city. During the Ming dynasty, morning court sessions were held here for the emperor to discuss state affairs with his ministers. During the Qing dynasty, it was more for banquets and ceremonies.
"G" refers to Tai He Dian (太和殿 or Hall of Supreme Harmony). This is the largest hall in the city and built on 3 layers of marble. It is located on the central axis as well. This hall was used mainly for wedding ceremonies and enthronement rituals. You will realize there are 2 smaller grey square and rectangle behind it. The grey little square is the Zhong He Dian (中和殿 or Hall of Central Harmony). It is used by the Emperor to prepare or rest before and during ceremonies. The last grey rectangle is the Bao He Dian (保和殿 or Hall of Preserving Harmony). It is usually used for rehearsing ceremonies and the final site for imperial examinations. Only the Hall of Supreme Harmony and Hall of Preserving Harmony features the imperial throne. These 3 halls form the centre of the Outer Court.
"H" and "J" refers to the Hall of Military Eminence and Hall of Literary Glory. "K" refers to the Southern Three Palaces.
I'm not usually someone who likes to pay for guided tours (because I'm cheap like that) but I'm going to put it out there that I would recommend paying RMB20 (if you are okay with mandarin) or RMB40 for English for an automatic guide.
The automatic guide also serves very well as a map of where you should be going as all available tourist spots will light up in red and dimmed once you've visited it. Saves you a lot of trouble of walking around in circles!
As you can see, it's freaking crowded! Summer months are the peak periods of these tourist attractions in Beijing because it's also the school holidays. Best months are spring and winter if you are not terrified of cold weather.
By the time we reached the Imperial Garden, we have had been walking for almost 4 hours and we were not even done! Both of us were so exhausted we couldn't bring ourselves to walk any further and decided to end the tour here.
Next up the Lama Temple!
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