daveyandsam.com » Forbidden City http://www.daveyandsam.com Our Family Blog Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:34:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Forbidden City http://www.daveyandsam.com/2008/11/10/forbidden-city/ http://www.daveyandsam.com/2008/11/10/forbidden-city/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:12:35 +0000 Davey http://www.daveyandsam.com/2008/11/10/forbidden-city/ Read more →]]> Lying at the centre of Beijing is the Forbidden City (Dongcheng), so called because it was off limits to the locals for over 500 years.  The imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties, now known as the Palace Museum, is the largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China and the world’s largest palace complex  – consisting of 980 buildings and 8,707 bays of rooms all within 74 hectares. 

For almost five centuries it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

We have yet to visit a UNESCO Site and not take hundreds of photos.  On this occasion we took only a few. The complex so vast, the buildings were so large and so busy with tourists, it was almost impossible to capture a decent shot.  There was literally thousands upon thousands of tourists, truly incredible and what a money spinner.

We, like most of our travel comrades in the hostel, became frustrated walking around and in the end just headed for home.  We have provided a few pictures, but they are all crap…even the ariel photos taken from Beihai Park looking down on the city are layered with smog…

The two boys in the picture below had the right idea .

UNESCO World Heritage Site #12

Beijing 050

Beijing 064

Beijing 082

Beijing 111

Beijing 191

Beijing 195

Beijing 183

Beijing 077

Beijing 143

Beijing 144

]]> http://www.daveyandsam.com/2008/11/10/forbidden-city/feed/ 0