It was early morning when we arrived, the sun was still on the way up, which made for some really great color. The weather was dry and cold though, so that balanced it out a bit...
Before we go on, lets update how the troops are doing. We are all in relatively good health, (for now...) and liking our hotel, but the one thing about China that caught us a bit off guard was the fact that it was DRY. REALLY DRY. We had to keep the room coffee pot boiling all night to keep the room even a bit moist, and each morning we had to wait our turn for the bathroom politely as the person in there hacked and coughed and expelled all the dust and garbage they had inhaled the night before.
We got up at a fairly decent hour, and headed out to revisit the forbidden city.
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It was early morning when we arrived, the sun was still on the way up, which made for some really great color. The weather was dry and cold though, so that balanced it out a bit... |
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I totally
sat in the center of this room waiting for the sun rays to align up, but
no superpowers were forthcoming.
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The Chinese have taken the act of throwing money in the fountain to the next level. Due to the lower denominations of money being in bill form, you can find bills in the water, or in this case suspended poetically in ice.
Ah! The poetry of pollution... |
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Andy levels a look at me that says, "Get that camera out of my face before I shove it up your ass." Alex's furled brow seems to silently echo... "Yeah, in your ass." |
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The shot that cannot be taken. |
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We
wandered into the sides of the forbidden city a bit, which is just as
well, cause that area is full of little buildings, houses and such, all
packed with interesting relics.
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I think this dragon was in MAC ENG. |
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It just wouldn't be China if everything didn't have some austere, auspicious, fortune-cookie feel to it. Props to the Chinese for stating what the truth in a pleasing way. |
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We stopped in the clock museum a second time to check out some of the more ornate clocks where they actually turn the clock on once a day to show how it works. I have never seen such amazing clockwork, and I have been to Germany and Switzerland. And Japan, And China, And France, And Korea, And England...
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Believe it or not, this clock can write Kanji better than I can. Although we didn't get to see in run, you can see that the mechanism of this clock causes this little puppet to scrawl kanji on that little piece of paper on the desk. Amazing |
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I thought we were reaching the end of the forbidden city, (or at least the part that we were allowed to enter (The unforbidden parts) when we stumbled across the nine dragon wall. Each in a different color and each having a different meaning, position...auspice, um.... ah... Flavor. I think the yellow one is lemon. |
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To
proceed from this point you need to put on these little booties to protect
the stone and wood floors beyond this point that are in a lesser state
of repair.
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Hey Alex. Nice booties. |
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Chinese lions or dogs or whatever... either way they are super cool. They have a tendency to be smooshing their own children though... |
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Intricate carvings of dragons of the coolest variety adorn this pathway of the Gods. Maybe Dragons eat babies. (Inside Joke for Calm Tiger.) |
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Once you pass the original courtyard, you arrive at a small "museum" The trick is this... don't just go around and exit through the door you come in. The exit is actually the hanging black tarp at the back of the room... If you miss that, you will miss out on tons of cool items. Seen here, personal seals of emperors long gone. And yes, those are all made of Jade. |
| This will be cool for anyone who has read Hengyokai. |
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Swords
with all manner of extravagant, but totally inpractical construction were
on display. Jade, Ivory, Mother of pearl, you name it, they had a pommel
made of it.
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Ok, Sorry, I'm done with the swords... |
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Just outside of one of the halls of stuff we stopped to use a bathroom. While waiting Alex heard these little banging noises coming from inside one of the old buildings. "What do you figure that is?" He Asked. "Repair Work?" I guessed. "Badminton." Sure enough two guys had a badminton net strung up inside this one particular ancient hall. World heritage site. Yeah, right. |
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Turn another corner and get ready for more Disney magic. The reliquaries quickly gave way to housing. |
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One of the cool things about the forbidden city is the way that everything (in this section of the park anyhow...) is made to look natural and wild, yet is in fact, very structured. Several invisible paths wind through these rocks up to the doorway at the top right. Sooo Coool. |
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Before we knew it time was passing on, and we decided it was time to move on. Although I am sure there are a few nooks and crannies we left untouched, I feel great about having seen what I have, and looking back, I think the forbidden city was the coolest part of Beijing. |
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We grabbed a cab and after the cross town 2 dollar ride, we grabbed a quick lunch of various animals. I say that because, may I remind you, we could only read the Kanji for animals. Well, Andy and Alex could anyhow, if it were left to me, I would only know how to order cow or bear. Maybe horse. And now pig, but only since Alex taught me a few weeks ago. From there we headed to the drum tower. The drum tower is an ancient tower that was used to drum out the calendar and times across the city in days gone by. |
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A set of steep slippery worn stairs is the way up. |
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Once at the top we were treated to the sight of ancient Chinese drums. These drums look suspiciously close the the native Japanese Taiko drum. Finally, upon seeing this I understood the new slogans of Japan Tourism: "Japan; Stealing stuff from China since the dawn of time!" |
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Every couple of minutes (30 or 40) a bunch of guys in traditional costume (I mean traditional costumes) bang out a wicked percussive set stolen and bastardized from Japan. Oh wait... Strike that... reverse it... |
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The
ravages or time are apparent here. They have one of the original tower
drums sitting alongside the new replicas that they now use.
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Another cool part about the drum tower is that if affords one a cool view of the hutongs. The four sided traditional dwellings of the Chinese. |
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Another
thing you get a good view of is the bell tower, which sits across from
the drum tower. That was our next destination.
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At the top of an even steeper, slippery-er set of stairs you find the bell. This monster is 7 meters tall and weights 63 tonnes. I guess the overdid it a bit when they built it, because it couldn't be moved to the tower by traditional means. They had to wait till winter for a nearby river to freeze and then slide it to the tower on the river. I was able to find the pin I was looking for at the top though, so it was well worth the climb. Now all I need is the new vest to pin it on to... |
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By this time the day was waning and we decided to head back to the hotel. We walked it, stopping in various shops and even a market along the way. I was a bit surprised to find a Christmas tree in amongst the slums of the hutongs, and snapped a quick pic. On the way back Alex stopped to by an acoustic guitar and case of decent quality for 50 bucks US. China is cheap. |
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