Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City
On the last day of the guided part of the tour, we hit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
Tiananmen Square is probably most famous outside of China for protests in 1989 that ended in the deaths of a lot of protesters, maybe even thousands. It has a long history before the protests, though. It was built in 1417 and was the site of Mao Zedong's proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. You can also see Mao's Mausoleum, where his embalmed body lies. Sadly, we didn't get to see it because the lines were incredibly long. In fact, the crowds were so huge that we didn't get any time to explore the square or the Forbidden City on our own, which was a bit disappointing.
Tiananmen Gate, which leads to the Forbidden City.
(That's Chairman Mao's portrait.)
We didn't spend much time in the square at all; we just headed straight for the Forbidden City. (Click on the link for more pictures; ours didn't turn out very well.) This was the palace complex of the emperors from 1420 to 1912. In fact, it's the world's largest palace complex. It was pretty amazing; it took us an hour and a half just to walk from one end to the other. Unfortunately, a couple of the bigger buildings were under scaffolding since the whole complex is being renovated for the 2008 Olympics.
The most amazing scaffolding in the world.
In the afternoon, we went to the Summer Palace--more about that later.
Tiananmen Square is probably most famous outside of China for protests in 1989 that ended in the deaths of a lot of protesters, maybe even thousands. It has a long history before the protests, though. It was built in 1417 and was the site of Mao Zedong's proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. You can also see Mao's Mausoleum, where his embalmed body lies. Sadly, we didn't get to see it because the lines were incredibly long. In fact, the crowds were so huge that we didn't get any time to explore the square or the Forbidden City on our own, which was a bit disappointing.
Tiananmen Gate, which leads to the Forbidden City.(That's Chairman Mao's portrait.)
We didn't spend much time in the square at all; we just headed straight for the Forbidden City. (Click on the link for more pictures; ours didn't turn out very well.) This was the palace complex of the emperors from 1420 to 1912. In fact, it's the world's largest palace complex. It was pretty amazing; it took us an hour and a half just to walk from one end to the other. Unfortunately, a couple of the bigger buildings were under scaffolding since the whole complex is being renovated for the 2008 Olympics.
The most amazing scaffolding in the world.In the afternoon, we went to the Summer Palace--more about that later.
posted by AJ at 10:29 PM
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