11 July 2018, Wednesday
For our final day in Beijing, we had only one place left to cover – the Forbidden City (故宫). It was raining when we left our Airbnb house at 10:15am. We had already delayed setting off but the weather forecast showed that it would rain the whole day so we had no choice but to just go ahead with our plan.
I had pre-booked our admission tickets to the Forbidden City yesterday via the travel company, Klook. We paid S$86.10 for seven tickets, or S$12.30 per person. When making the booking, I had to key in the passport numbers of each visitor. I booked the morning entry slot, which starts from 8:30am. Afternoon entry starts from 12:00pm.
We took the subway and alighted at Tiananmen East station, then walked towards Tiananmen (天安门), which was the entrance to the Forbidden City. When we arrived at 11:10am, there was already a huge crowd of people toting umbrellas making its way in, and we followed along. We walked through one of the five arches of the building, under the watchful eyes of Chairman Mao, whose large portrait hangs above the central arch.
After walking through another gate, Duanmen (端门), we soon reached the Meridian Gate (午门), which is the southern gate and marks the formal entrance to the Forbidden City. This was where our tickets were inspected. Upon completing the online booking yesterday, I had received an e-voucher of our tickets. However, I didn’t need to show the e-voucher when entering. The staff keyed in our individual passport numbers into their computer system and we were able to enter briskly without fuss. The entire process was smooth despite the crowd.
The Forbidden City is the largest imperial palace in the world. The entire complex straddles over 72 hectares, with 980 buildings and more than 8,700 rooms. It was built over 14 years from 1406 to 1420 by an estimated one million workers. It was home to 24 emperors – 14 of the Ming dynasty and 10 of the Qing dynasty. The last emperor to occupy the palace was Emperor Puyi, who was abdicated in 1912 but continued to live here until he was evicted in 1924. Puyi is the titular character in the 1987 film The Last Emperor.
The Forbidden City is a rectangle measuring 961m from north to south and 753m from east to west. It is divided into the Outer Court (the southern part) and Inner Court (the northern part), surrounded by rectangle walls 10m high and a moat 52m wide. The Outer Court was where grand ceremonies and state affairs were conducted, while the Inner Court was where the emperor lived. The entire palace is symmetrical, with the main buildings lying on the central north-south axis.
Just like Yonghegong yesterday (which functioned as an imperial palace before it was converted to a Buddhist Lama temple), the Forbidden City comprises of a series of gates and courtyards, but on a much larger scale. After passing through Meridian Gate, we crossed the Golden Water Bridges before reaching the Gate of Supreme Harmony (太和门). After that, we emerged in a huge open courtyard, where the Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿) stood at the opposite end. It was one of the three main buildings in the Outer Court, the other two being the Hall of Central Harmony (中和殿) and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (保和殿).
It was indeed awe-inspiring to be standing there in the humongous courtyard, surrounded by these majestic, centuries-old buildings that were once the playgrounds of emperors from a bygone era. Everywhere we turned, we saw buildings painted in red and topped with yellow glazed tiled roofs. Red is an auspicious colour in Chinese culture while yellow is associated only with the imperial family. Apparently, the glazed tiles are so slippery that birds are unable to land on them, so you don’t see any birds around the Forbidden City.
Another thing you don’t see in the Forbidden City are the drains. By that, I mean drain covers or exposed drain ditches. They are there of course, but very well hidden. The ancient drainage system comprises of three components – one for buildings, one for surface runoffs, and one underground. The drainage system is so efficient that when a severe rainstorm on 20 July 2016 left many roads in Beijing flooded, the Forbidden City remained flood-free. Indeed, it was raining when we visited but we didn’t see any puddles of water anywhere. It was as if the water just magically disappeared through the stone surfaces.
Likewise, the Inner Court is made up of three main buildings – the Palace of Heaven Purity (乾清宫), the Hall of Union (交泰殿) and the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity (坤宁宫). The Palace of Heaven Purity was where the emperor slept.
After walking through the Imperial Garden, we exited through the Gate of Divine Prowess (神武门) in the north. Right in front of us was Jingshan Park (景山公园), a royal landscaped garden perched atop a small hill. I was originally quite keen to go up there for a look because it provided a nice, panoramic view of the entire Forbidden City, but the weather wasn’t in our favour so we decided to skip it.
In all, we spent only about an hour at the Forbidden City. The rain dampened our mood so we basically just rushed through our visit. It was also way too crowded, and the rain and umbrellas made it unconducive to take nice photos. Again, without a guide, it was hard to fully appreciate the history and deeper meanings of the different buildings in the palace. As much as I enjoy travelling free-and-easy, it is sometimes also good to have a guide, especially for historical sites like the Forbidden Palace.
After exiting the Forbidden Palace, we walked eastwards along the moat towards Dongsi (东四) subway station. We then hopped on the train and alighted at Sanyuanqiao (三元桥) station, where we met Aunt J’s sister and hubby, both of whom are Singaporeans who have been living and working in Beijing for some time. They very kindly treated us to lunch at a restaurant called 三十六味, which specialises in authentic Beijing dishes.
It is always nice to have someone “local” to host us, because they know the best eating spots and places to go. Aunt J’s sister and hubby ordered so much food for us, and they were all delicious. It was a feast, really, and we couldn’t be more grateful for the wonderful hospitality shown to us. It was also nice that Aunt J could catch up with her sister for a while. I know very well how it feels to connect with family members abroad.
After the delightful lunch, we called two taxis to take us back to the city centre. Of course, there is no Uber or Grab in China so I had to use a similar app called DiDi (滴滴出行) instead. We decided to revisit Qianmen Street (前门大街) and Dashilan Street (大栅栏). We were already here yesterday evening but wanted to come back for some more shopping, since we didn’t have anywhere else to go anyway. We spent the rest of the evening here free-and-easy, exploring the shops and streets that we missed yesterday.
At about 6:45pm, we met up for dinner. We were still very full from the sumptuous lunch earlier so we opted for something light. I found a restaurant called Goubuli (狗不理包子), which was founded in Tianjin in 1858 and is one of China’s longest established brands. They specialise in baozi, which are steamed buns with savoury meat or vegetable filling. We decided to give it a try.
We ordered two servings of the baozi (16 pieces altogether), two bowls of 炸酱面 noodles and a pot of chrysanthemum tea. Oh man, it was severely overrated and overpriced. I was shocked when the total bill came up to CNY 347 (S$72.35), comparable to the cost of our lunch feast earlier. The baozi tasted very ordinary. Honestly, I think the meat bao from the coffeeshop near my house in Singapore tastes even better than this! Definitely not recommended.
After the disappointing meal, we went back to our house to pack our bags as we would be leaving Beijing early tomorrow morning for Shanghai. Once we were all packed, we gathered at the living room to chill, had a few beers and enjoyed the experience of being together under one roof for the last time. We would be staying in separate hotel rooms from tomorrow onwards, so this nightly communal gathering was one thing we would miss for sure. And that brings the curtain down on Beijing…on to a new city tomorrow!
