There it is from across the moat: one of the 4 corner watch towers of the Forbidden City.
No way the likes of you or I are getting in there, right?
Well.. it's a whole new world since 1911 (if I remember correctly), and any old member of the hoi poloi can stroll through (note the trendy shaved head, the long hair and t-shirt, also the hat of the indigenous woman from the south of China...these folks are all Chinese, incidentally, not foreigners)...
one of these utterly cool gates (note colors!)
and can see down these long vistas. The Forbidden City is HUGE!, with an inner and outer ring of buildings, all symmetrically laid out. Much of the layout has symbolic significance. You with an interest in sacred geometry might want to study up on this place. Me, I was more interested in the situation of the women. Not too good. Concubines were chosen at between 13-17 years old from a country-wide search every 3 years. Once they entered the city, they never left it again. Some of them rose to positions of some power (bearing the emperor a son was a good way to do this). But, if you got too powerful, you had to watch out for who might usurp that power. Exmple: the final Empress, Cixi, who ruled from behind the throne for many years and oversaw the collapse of it all, started as a 5th rank (low, that is) concubine, bore the emperor a son, was threatened by the "Pearl" concubine, and while there was some tumult or other, had her thrown down a well! She continued as the power behind the throne and was wildly indulgent...in food (twice a day, feasts of 100 dishes were prepared by the kitchen staff of 450!), jewels and silks. Her son, Puyi, declared emperor at age 3, was forced to abdicate at age 6, tho allowed to live in the palace til 1924. The outer ring of the city was opened as a museum sometime in there and the rest of it in 1925.
No way the likes of you or I are getting in there, right?
Well.. it's a whole new world since 1911 (if I remember correctly), and any old member of the hoi poloi can stroll through (note the trendy shaved head, the long hair and t-shirt, also the hat of the indigenous woman from the south of China...these folks are all Chinese, incidentally, not foreigners)...
one of these utterly cool gates (note colors!)
and can see down these long vistas. The Forbidden City is HUGE!, with an inner and outer ring of buildings, all symmetrically laid out. Much of the layout has symbolic significance. You with an interest in sacred geometry might want to study up on this place. Me, I was more interested in the situation of the women. Not too good. Concubines were chosen at between 13-17 years old from a country-wide search every 3 years. Once they entered the city, they never left it again. Some of them rose to positions of some power (bearing the emperor a son was a good way to do this). But, if you got too powerful, you had to watch out for who might usurp that power. Exmple: the final Empress, Cixi, who ruled from behind the throne for many years and oversaw the collapse of it all, started as a 5th rank (low, that is) concubine, bore the emperor a son, was threatened by the "Pearl" concubine, and while there was some tumult or other, had her thrown down a well! She continued as the power behind the throne and was wildly indulgent...in food (twice a day, feasts of 100 dishes were prepared by the kitchen staff of 450!), jewels and silks. Her son, Puyi, declared emperor at age 3, was forced to abdicate at age 6, tho allowed to live in the palace til 1924. The outer ring of the city was opened as a museum sometime in there and the rest of it in 1925. 
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