China: The Forbidden City

I'm on home stretch here with the China blog posts...only three more to go.  We really did pack it all in on my trip!!!  When Laura told me we were visiting the "Forbidden City" I had no idea what to expect.  She said it took herself, Chris and the girls more than two hours to walk through it without veering from the straight path they were on.  This still didn't do the massiveness of what I was walking into justice.  I was imagining a large building with different hallways, when in reality- it really is a mini city within the heart of Beijing. 

Some history, of course...

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty....for almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.
Built in 1406 to 1420, and taking one million people to build, the complex consists of 980 buildings, 8886 rooms and covers 180 acres. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.  "Forbidden" means that no one could enter or leave the city without first gaining permission from the emperor.

Here's the crazy part:  The emperor had an empress (his wife) and then at any given time would have around 70-80 concubines (mistresses whose job was to birth his children).  Here's some fun facts:  after dinner each night he would be given a name to draw out of the hat, and whoever the lucky lady of the drawing was got to enjoy the "company" of the emperor.  Each concubine had a rating, 1-8 and that rating signified your importance to the emperor, therefore meaning more evenings together.  The poor empress only had 3 days after their wedding ceremony to have her husband all to herself, and to make a lasting impression on him to ensure that he would make time for her amongst all the others vying for attention.  I mean seriously, this man had stamina, people!  It sounds ludicrous, but in order to keep the dynasty alive, there couldn't be anyone other than his children ruling, and I suppose they needed a lot to choose from. 

The entire city was home to 20,000 residents, only about 200 of them being the family of the emperor.  The rest were maids, cooks, servants, workers, etc.  Unics were young men that came to work for the emperor who upon signing up would have their testicals castrated and put in glass jars.  The testicles were then sewn back onto them at their time of death before being buried.  Obviously, they did this to keep the servants from messing up the dynasty line and sleeping with the concubines. 

All emperors were constantly frightened for their safety and power, the bricks that lay on the floor of the city are 15 layers deep ruining any chance of digging underneath.  The City is surrounded by a 26 foot high city wall and a 20' deep x 171' wide moat.  The walls are 28 feet wide at the base and served as both defensive walls and retaining walls for the palace. They were constructed with a rammed earth core, and surfaced with three layers of specially baked bricks on both sides, with the interstices filled with mortar.  Good luck getting in, bad guys.

Needless to say, it was absolutely mesmerizing- and I haven't even touched on the vastness of hand painted and detailed EVERYTHING.  The "city" closed before we could explore side rooms and buildings.  I loved this place!

The outside is slightly deceiving...

The doors to get in were massive!

Canal running through the city.

600 year old brick

A map of the entire city.

Large urns that were filled with water incase of a fire.

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Large Stone Carving (Read above picture)

Hand painted wood ceiling.

In one of the palace gardens.

 

The moat protecting the city.