China, Part IV cont'd

The Forbidden City, some details


Here are the drainage dragons I mentioned earlier.

I think our guide said this is the largest solid carved rock in the world, and that it weighs over 200 tons. Or was that metric tons, or 2,000 tons? We can't recall exactly. But the more interesting part was how they transported this monolith into the palace. Who could haul such a thing? However they harnessed it, they had to dig wells in the road every 400m or so, such that water would flood the road. Then it froze (I guess it was winter when they did this), and they slid the huge sculpted block along the ice. Pretty incredible.

One of many gilded copper lions standing guard throughout the palace. They were all a little bit different, for significant reasons, but I don't remember the details of this particular one.

A sundial, supposedly still functional. We weren't sure how to read it, but if you know, please tell us. It was about 3:00pm in this picture.

We don't have many interior pictures because we weren't allowed to go into many buildings. The living quarters had windows through which you could see some simple furnishings, but really, this place didn't have the splendor you might usually associate with a palace. The striking things about it were the sheer vastness, the echoing stone, the sculpture, and the distinctly Chinese architecture.

Thinking about what life was like for those who built the palace and for the people who lived in the palace was also stirring. Our guide described the selection process for the emperor's concubines. I felt sorry for the women who were forced to leave their families and everything they knew and loved never to leave the palace walls again, where life wasn't so happy for most of them.