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| Tiananmen Square |
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| People's Hall |
The famous Tiananmen Square is huge. Our guide said it's the world's largest
square - reportedly 1 million people can occupy the square at one time. It's
not exactly square, more like a rectangle. It's surrounded on the four sides by the
people's hall (the Chinese parliament house, which has a banquet hall which
can reportedly seat 10,000 people), Mao's memorial, history museum and the Forbidden City.
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| Entrance to the Forbidden City |
The Forbidden City is the old emperor's palace, which was occupied by the
emperors till the early part of 20th century. The guide repeatedly referred to
the movie "The Last Emperor" and even pointed out some differencess from
the movie version. The last emperor was crowned at the age of three. He was
chosen from among the royal family, as the previous emperor had died without
leaving an heir. He was expelled from the Forbidden City in the 1920 when he
(or his men) tried to take the royal treasures out and sell them - these
treasures are reportedly now in Taiwan, where Chiang Kai Shek fled with them
after being defeated by Mao. Then the emperor was imprisoned for a long time,
first in USSR and then in free China, before being released finally in the
1950s; he has later written his autobiography.
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| Entering the Forbidden City |
Reportedly, no one in the empire was allowed to build any house taller than the Forbidden City, nor use golden coloured roof like the City nor even use the dragon motif. The City is surrounded by a moat. The bridge over the moat has five marble bridges reaching the outer gate - the middle one for the emperor to cross, left one for the royal family, the right one for the courtiers and the others for the commoners. Inside the outer gate, there are offices of translators on the left and of secretaries on the right. All the courtiers (who used to come outside the outer gate at 4 am come rain or shine) sat kneeling down in the huge courtyard inside the outer gate when the emperor ruled.
There are three gates to the inner City (which served as the emperor's personal
palaces) - only the emperor (and the empress only once after the wedding) could
use the central one. The palaces in the City are all made of carved wood,
though the floor is made of marble & inner room floors of golden coloured
bricks. The palace has a Golden Throne building where the emperor sat. The gate
to the emperor's complex of buildings was called the Meridien Gate, as the
emperor believed the meridien line (international time line) passed thru that
place (remember am/pm - anti meridien/post meridien). Come to think of it, he
may actually have been right - if the western countries had not imposed the
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), adopting the line in Greenwich in England as the
central time line, China's may have been the time line; after all, scientifically I don't think there is any one central longitude in the earth
and the time lines are all assumptions.
But pardon the digression, we were talking about the Forbidden City. So the
emperor lived inside the inner palace with his 72 concubines (much less than
the no. of queens some of the Indian Kings had; even the ancient Sri Lankan
king at Kandy had about 360 wives as I learnt on my visit there!). The throne room
is where the emperor held all ceremonies including the coronation, then there
is a smaller room (for the emperor's rest and preparation) and then the
empress's room with intact beds and all. Then there are the concubines'
quarters.
The Temple of Heavens is where the emperor (who was believed to be the son of
God) came to pray once a year for good harvest. He reportedly stayed there three days
& abstained from wine, women and meat. The temple is also made of wood,
though the temple base is of marble again. It has three successive levels, representing
the God at the top level, the emperor in the middle and the people the
lowermost one. The temple has huge courtyards where the musician's played. Only
the emperor could go up the temple steps to pray - the courtiers stayed outside
in the courtyard. The temple complex, which is reportedly about four times the
size of the Forbidden City, is mostly trees and grasslands with the temple in
the middle. There is also an interesting small lawn ('Seven Star Stones' with
eight large boulders representing different areas of China set in_ - the eighth
was put in by the Manchu emperor to represent his region.
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| The Seven Stones |
At the pearl market near the Summer Palace, we were shown how fresh water pearl
is cultured - they actually cut open an oyster and showed us the pearls inside.
Reportedly, pearl culture in China is hundreds of years old. There were pearls
of all values and all colours - the colour of the pearl actually depends upon
what minerals the oyster absorbs. They also had pearl powder cream for the
skin!
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| Pearl culture |
The Summer Palace was built for the emperor's sister, called "Empress
Dowager" - we'll call her ED for short! The Palace was burnt down twice in
1860s and 1890s by imperialists, etc. and the current palace was rebuilt in
1903. ED adhered to Budhism, so there is a budhist pagoda withing the
premises. But three-fourths of the complex is a huge lake - the guide told us
that we could have taken a boat ride but for the fact that the water level now
is too low for that. From all accounts, ED lived a real luxurious life, with
milk baths, pearl cream, rides in the lake and what not. One distinctive
feature of the palace is the windows (of different shapes) facing the lake -
Chinese houses did not usually have windows but this palace has. There is a
dining room where reportedly a 128-course meal was served (our guide told us we can also
have such a meal in some imperial restaurant for US$ 10,000 and it goes on for
three days!).
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| The 'Long Corridoor' |
Then there is long corridor facing the lake, which at 750 mts. is reportedly
one of the world's longest corridors. This was built for the Manchu emperor's
concubines from South China (reportedly, the Manchu emperors preferred Chinese
concubines with their small feet!), and so pictures from the south are carved
in the wood in the corridor. There was a real good breeze blowing in from the lake.
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| Detailing on the roof of 'Long Corridoor' |
At the
end of the corridor, there is a marble boat (actually a building in boat shape)
where ED looked at the lake through a mirror on the second floor (so that she
could also admire her own image!). The fixed boat which cannot be rocked actually
represents the emperor's wish that his empire be as permanent.
Reportedly, no one in the empire was allowed to build any house taller than the Forbidden City, nor use golden coloured roof like the City nor even use the dragon motif. The City is surrounded by a moat. The bridge over the moat has five marble bridges reaching the outer gate - the middle one for the emperor to cross, left one for the royal family, the right one for the courtiers and the others for the commoners. Inside the outer gate, there are offices of translators on the left and of secretaries on the right. All the courtiers (who used to come outside the outer gate at 4 am come rain or shine) sat kneeling down in the huge courtyard inside the outer gate when the emperor ruled.
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