Tiananmen Square is the world’s largest public square and reminds me a bit of the Mall in Washington, DC. Massively scaled, it’s a large open area, with a few monuments in the middle and numerous government buildings and museums flanking it on either side. Although a public space, Big Brother is apparently watching at all times through plain-clothes policemen and closed-circuit video cameras.
Here you can get a sense for just how big Tiananmen is. In the background you see the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (where the mummified body of the Chairman lays in repose -- unfortunately, I didn't get to see him).
But I did get to snuggle up with his mug shot at the Gate of Heavenly Peace
Right across the Street from Tienanmen Square, behind the Gate of Heavenly Peace lises the Forbidden City, home to 24 emperors spanning the Ming and Qing dynasties. It's a place were trespassing was punishable by death until the end of dynastic rule in China in the early part of the 20th century. Today it’s Beijing’s greatest tourist attraction and absolutely amazing in terms of its size and beauty, features that are unfortunately somewhat diminished as a result of the throngs of visitors that flood its gates every day.
It is absolutely massive, containing a total of 800 individual buildings.
A pair of lions guard one of the buildings...
How important each building is was determined by the number of figurines that adorned the edge of the roof.
Decoration one of the many giant copper pots that are in the Forbidden City. They were used to store water in case of fires.
A little river that flows through the Forbidden City...
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