Touring Beijing

Hi all it's Will:

Think big… that’s what the Chinese seem to do. Tian’an Men square is a huge open concrete expanse, around four football fields wide by eight football fields long (400 yds. X 800 yds.) In the center is a large “Monument to the People’s Heroes”. From this large expanse we traveled under Chang’an Jie, the main thoroughfare between the square and the Ming Dynasty gate, which is the entrance to the Forbidden City. Once you pass through the Ming Dynasty gate all you can think of is HUGE!…that’s all I can say about the Forbidden City, once considered the symbolic center of the Chinese universe. Passing through the Ming Dynasty gate you look out over a phenomenally large “Outer Court”. Beautiful 600-year-old architecture lines the four sides of this enormous plaza. Don’t have any dimensions on the size, but I’d guess around three times the size of Tian’an Men Square. But it doesn’t stop here. For the next hour or more we walked through one gate or hall after the other …the Meridian gate, the Gate of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Middle Harmony, the Hall of preserving Harmony, and on and on, with large expansive courtyards or plazas after each one.
We were dreading the walk back through this vast array of architecture, since my knee was bothering from all of the odd sized steps along the Great Wall the day before, until we finally passed through the Gate of Heavenly Purity to the outside world and our waiting tour vehicle.
Not done touring for the day though… off to the Temple of Heaven, the Empress’ also called the Dragon Ladies Summer Palace, a 716-acre expanse of beautiful gardens, temples, forest, and a man made lake. A truly beautiful area near downtown Beijing. One of the amazing features is a covered walkway that extends all the way around the lake, 2,388 ft. Each beam on the structure, cross beams and side beams, are decorated with beautiful scenic paintings, 14,000 of them. Everything they did in years past is truly amazing, both in detail and magnitude, and something we truly are glad to have experienced.

PS: From Paulette Will was a like a movie star at Tian’an Men square. The school kids kept running up to him and asking to take his picture.