Monday, Nov. 16
I can't believe I'm writing this, but the Forbidden City is not as impressive as you would imagine or as it's portrayed in movies. My usual take is that film can't capture the scope or grandeur of a place. Any cathedral presented in a movie is horribly deficient. The Forbidden City is indeed grand with lots of buildings and courtyards, however for a national treasure, it's not well kept. Print is fading, only 5 or 6 of 999 rooms are "restored," meaning they are furnished at all. The rest have closed doors.
Those rooms that are reconstructed have one of two crowd control options. Either ropes keep you 20 yards away (like the emperor's audience room) - making me wish I had binoculars to see the detail - or this thick reflective glass is over the doors and windows that glares so badly, it's impossible to take in the whole room at once (like the empress's bedroom)- resembling a darkened room investigated with a handheld flashlight.
Truth be told, when Chaiman Mao was marching on Beijing, the palace was looted by the fleeing government. The treasures were taken to Taiwan because the Communists had no respect for religion or previous regimes. They feared that the ancient treasures would be melted down and turned into currency, so they took all they could. Now, the Communists have little more than the buildings and the Taiwanese have little more than their relics.
In front of many doors in China are a pair of lions on each side of the entryway. The female is on the left as you enter, the male is on the right. The female lion has a cub she's playing with. The male holds what looks like a ball under his paw. The Forbidden City has many such lions.
Tour guide: While the female is caring for the cub on the left, do any of you know what the male is doing?
My son: Playing soccer?
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