China - Part 7 - Forbidden City, Meridian Gate thru Emperors Courtyard

Part two of the Forbidden City tour. I must say that while we were going through the FC, this was the part that kind of started to lose me. For one reason, my toes were froze and starting to ache. Number two, while we were waiting for others, Robby just kind of magically disappeared for a couple of seconds. He was truly about 10-12 feet from us and simply looking at 'stuff', but it was enough to cause us near-caniptions and go all anal about our monitoring him for the rest of the tour. Number three, the buildings were really starting to blend together by this point. Oh sure, now that I'm going through the photos with the proverbial fine tooth comb, I see some differences and what not, but at the time? Heck, lets wrap it up!


After seeing the aerial map now, I'm amazed at how much time we spent on the Southern edge just getting to the Meridian Gate and how little time we got to spend in the Emperors courtyard and the garden!  Those were really cool and had tons of history. 


Regardless, here we find ourselves at the Meridian Gate. As I explained in FC post1, the Meridian Gate is the last true entrance to the FC and the highest point within the walls too.  
In researching the FC, I've learned that at the end of the 18th century approximately 9000 people lived within the Forbidden City, composed of guards, servants, eunuchs, concubines, civil servants and the Royal Family. 


There are an estimated 60,000 dragons within the walls of the FC.

Interesting, then there's this: Emperors were entitled to several wives and many concubines. Concubines were well-educated women selected from the best Manchu families. Nightly, the Emperor would decide which concubine would visit him that evening. She would then be stripped, bathed and depilated before being carried to his chamber. The number of times a concubine was chosen secured her social standing.


Not good enough? Try this: Depending upon status, each rank would dine from "color-coded" plates, cups and bowls. Only the Emperor and Empress were entitled to use real gold or "radiant yellow" porcelain. Over 3000 pieces of gold and silver plate were held in Qing kitchens during the 18th century.


Or how 'bout this one? The Qing Dynasty started with 9000 eunuchs, reducing that number to roughly 1500 by 1908. They had a tradition of castrating these male servants. Luckily for those servants, their testicles were mummified and stored in jars, to be returned to them at death so they could be buried with them! 


Makes you sort of look forward to April 15th (tax day for you non-American readers)!!


Let's move on to photos before this deteriorates any further... 


The red line/arrows are the path of today's photos.

Ahhh... the Gate Of Supreme Harmony.  It must have been because this is where Robby started barking about having to use the bathroom. Just kidding...  Not about Rob having to use the bathroom but rather it relating to... oh, nevermind.  The gate was originally built during the Ming Dynasty. Following the Qing conquest of China, the gate was given its present Chinese name. This gate and the Meridian Gate form the north and south boundaries of a great plaza that is divided by the waterway that I thought was the moat, called the "Golden River Bridges". On the north side of the gate is Harmony Square and the entrance to the grand Hall of Supreme Harmony.  Arrayed around the stairs are a large number of incense burners.  The central stairway (gated off in the photo) was reserved exclusively for the Emperor and his immediate attendants, as was the central entrance of Meridian Gate.

I don't know what this represented, but I thought it was cool and so did Robby!

This here is one of the incense burners that they referred to above.  This is at the base of the steps for the Gate of Supreme Harmony.

This is inside the Gate of Supreme Harmony and includes a map of the FC as well as a description written out in English on one side and Chinese on the other.

This is from the same vantage point as the photo above. The map and descriptions are immediately to my right when this photo was taken.  Interesting to note that the pillars, steps, gilded doorways and whatever else were always in odd numbers withing the FC.  Of course, I didn't know that while we were there so I couldn't count all of them and look for errors.

This would be the Hall of Supreme Harmony which is the largest hall with the FC. It is located at it's central axis, behind the Gate of the same name.  Built above 3 levels of marble stone base & surrounded by bronze incense burners, the Hall is one of the largest wooden structures within China.  This is where the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty's held their enthronement and wedding ceremonies.

Random buildings in the large courtyard leading up to the Hall (the Hall's steps on on the far left of the pic).

Here we are at the steps of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.  Notice that the middle and widest stairway is blocked off. To this day they still don't let us little people use that. All of the tourist have to go up the two outside stairways.  Also, in the lower left quadrant of the photo, you can see two of the big incense burners flanking each side of the staircase.

This is up on the platform right by the Hall.  More incense burners.

The fancy and adorable Rob by an incense burner with the Meridian Gate in the background.

Another from the same platform...

And another...

This shot was taken to not only capture the details on the buildings but also the stuff on the corners of the roofs.  This particular building (the Hall of yadda yadda...) was important. Very important. So there are 12 little figures on the corner of the roof.  I find it odd that it's not an odd number but what do I know?

Another shot from the platform of the surrounding buildings.

This is the back side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

A shot of the terracing off the platform hosting the Hall.

For whatever reason, I feel like this photo is out of sequential order.  I think it's the throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but I really can't recall for sure.  I think the four windows that you see in the background are the four windows on the doors you see two photos prior to this one.  How did it get out of order?  I have no idea.

This was a water tank that was used to help fight fires, take baths and whatever other purposes that you might want to collect rain water for.

Here's Robby with yet another lady friend.  This lady was very polite in asking if she could have her picture taken with "small American boy".  I asked Rob if it was okay with him and for some strange reason, he didn't seem to mind. :-)

That's it for this time. We'll pick up here in the 3rd and final post of the Forbidden City when we visit the Emperor's courtyard and the Garden as well as the moat on the outside as we're walking (read that as running/jogging) to our bus.