อ่านภาษาไทย จตุรัสเทียนอันเหมิน และ เมืองต้องห้าม ปักกิ่ง ประเทศจีน
Today is the first day for our full day trip in Beijing, we will visit Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and an Acrobat show…
The local package tour we bought, included the car, driver and English speaking tour guide. But we might have to pay for some admission fee.
The tour started about 9am, it’s nice weather in the morning in the Month of April. Our first stop of the day is Tiananmen Square….
For us, it’s just a large public square, there is nothing to do or to see here. But it’s very important history for China. It’s also known as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 which has more than 2,000 protestors were killed in this area.
There are so many soldiers standing around Tiananmen Square but I don’t think they allow you to take picture with…
It would be really boring if you only come to visit Tiananmen square, but it’s good thing that we can enter the Forbidden city from Tiananmen square!!!
We wouldn’t have this idea about the entrance if we didn’t come with tour guide because it’s a huge area without any signs – you need a guide!!!
It’s very crowded with tourist…
It’s been reported that there is about 50,000 tourists visiting The Forbidden city per day, or about 18-19 million tourist per year.
But almost all of the tourist looks like Chinese as they believe it to visit the forbidden city at least once in their lifetime!
Actually, there are 2 main gates to get in The Forbidden City, Tiananmen and Meridian Gates. But all the gates are about 11 meters tall, it’s tall so nobody can climb over the gate!
They also have the meaning of each side of the gate. Outside the Forbidden city gate will be square shape, means this is the human side. But when you walk inside the Forbidden city, the city gate will be in circle shape, means this is the heaven side…
In the past, this city is the palace for the Emperor and did not allow anybody to get in, and that’s why they called it “The Forbidden City”…
The tour guide told us that the emperor lived here with his 9,000 wives!!!
In the era of the empress, she would ask the soldiers to find some nice guys and take them to this palace… After that nobody met those men anymore!!!
HUGE HUGE and HUGE city! Construction lasted 14 years and required more than a million workers!!!
It’s just super huge, but there are not much things inside each hall, only the emporors’ households…
I really enjoyed taking picture of lions statue after the guide told us how to spot the difference between the mother lion and the father lion…can you guess?
The mother lion always plays with the baby while the father lion will play with a ball…
The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO as the “Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties”..
It’s very interesting and a good way to learn something about Chinese history and culture. The imperial garden at the back of the Forbidden city is very lovely as well.
By the way, the admission fee is about 60 Chinese Yuan (~$10), but it’s really worth it – you can spend almost half day here!
Next we’ll visit the Temple of Heaven and an Acrobat show…stay tuned
