Entering the Forbidden City...

Come... let me be your virtual tour guide to the Forbidden City. First of all, anyone wants to guess why was the emperor's palace called a Forbidden City? No answer from anyone... it's okay. I'll help you with the explanation. The entire palace was like a city on it's own with all sorts of entertainment, there were fresh supplies of food everyday so no one from the royal family would need to get out of this place to do grocery shopping. It was forbidden to the commoners outside the palace. No one should enter unless he or she has a really important message to convey to the emperor himself or risk getting his head and his family members' chopped off. That was the barbaric era throughout the whole world, not only in China. Please don't say that America is not a barbaric country because if you would have looked through your history facts, America has not been found by Christopher Columbus yet at that point of time. Okay... let's go back to the story of the Forbidden City. That place was so big and it was only one-tenth of the palace ground being opened for public. You would need two hours, doing brisk walking and snapping photos like you're a professional. Walk and snap, walk and snap... What you are looking at now, the picture above, was the courtyard of the palace. If you've winced your eyes, you would have seen three sets of steps. The emperor would be using the one in the middle while his dignitaries and consorts would be using the steps on the left and right. Underneath those large stones, the underground soil has been dug out and filled with concrete slabs to prevent the enemies from being moles and start digging from the underground into the palace. There would be palace guards guarding the whole place around the clock. Security was so tight, no one would dare to sneeze or even fart. That was the emperor's golden throne. I wonder where did the empress sit or was she suppose to stand by his side? That throne was made of real gold. Now, stop staring at that golden throne, instead, take a look at the ceiling. When this place was being renovated, the villagers from the I-don't-know-what's-it's-name village were commanded to make the bricks. The bricks were different from the rest of the red bricks that you and I know of. Everyday, only two villagers were allowed to enter and to place the bricks on the ceiling. The brick would be tested to see whether there were impurities in the mixture or whether there were any air bubbles. If either one was found or both were found, the brick which has the name of the maker bored on it, that particular brick-maker and his entire household, including distant relatives would have their life ended without argument or any court hearing. I have a fascination for the palace's door. They were so tall and huge but I wouldn't want this kinda door in my house. I would have difficulty banging it down when I want to show my temper. Next, let's proceed to the Hall of Clocks. I was very surprised to find that almost all the clocks in the museum were given by England. What kinda relationship was England having with China? How come I've never read about them? And why did England keep on giving clocks? Wasn't it a taboo to give clocks as gifts? It's like sending the receiver away on the day of his funeral. I would really love to know what kinda relationship was England having with China at that point of time. I am very curious right now. Then, there was this Nine Dragon Screen Wall... I know I'm trying to be your virtual tour guide but I, myself, do not know the purpose of having that screen wall. Maybe it was for entertainment purposes where you will need to stand in front of the wall and imagine that the dragons were fighting each other. There must be a story behind the screen wall... but I went behind the screen wall and there was nothing but concrete slabs. Let's go to the Palace Museum. It was mainly the showcase of what the empress kept as her collection. The empress has a large amount of carved jades, tiaras of all sorts of coloured stones and also the mother of all pearl necklace and a large diamond that shone so brightly, you would be blinded for a minute. I wasn't kidding. It was really blindingly blinking away. Hey, why did that design look like that of a mosque? Geez... I wasn't even sure what reason was there to the ceiling design. I just know that I have had the opportunity to look at the royal seals with hideous designs as the seal holder. I wonder why they have to look worse than gargoyles. Even the rat looked like that of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' karate master. Oh, the crowd... they were all in my group actually. There were 23 of us. ALL of them were very kind to me except for the tour guide. They made sure there I wasn't missing from the group and they just need to identify my wolf-head among the crowd. How cool they were. This was my first time following a tour group and Pinky and I have no skills at all in getting into tempo with the rest of the group. We were seen running like two mad hatters, trying to follow in line but we fall out of line no matter how hard we tried. I gave up running after them on the second day. I know there would be a lot of people looking for me if I went missing, so I couldn't be bothered and in the end most of them followed my tempo instead of the tour guide's. I'm a good tour guide, right, even if it's just virtual. If I'm really a tour guide, I know everyone will have a great holiday... too bad, I'm not a tour guide. I will be the one touring instead of guiding. I know I made a difference to the people in my group... it was all about impacting lives... Anyway, it was a great experience entering the Forbidden City, if given a choice, I wouldn't want to join a tour group anymore, it would be my first and last time. We were only given 2 hours and if I was there alone I would take the whole day walking around the Forbidden City....