Forbidden City
After nuaing my Saturday away..haha today finally got some time for decent sight-seeing.. Went to the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is just opposite Tian An Men Square along Chang An Jie.. The amount of ppl around that area is amazing...going everywhere and doing anything involves squeezing...really makes 1 tired in the summer heat...
The forbidden city is the place where all the emperors live in. The architecture is simply amazing. It is a pity that many of the buildings are under renovation.. sigh..so cannot see all of them. But nvm..I know I will b back some day..It is already my 3rd visit to the Forbidden City if I never remember wrongly. And it never fails to captivate me.
The beauty of the buildings and the rich history they hold really facinate me..I am quite a big fan of Chinese History actually...juz that I dun like to read them in books..I prefer to view them personally..hee. The size of the Forbidden City is so big that we took half a day to walk from the first gate to the last one...really nice on the way cos we could view the inner palace where the Emperors live and conduct their duties... Some of the places are exactly the same as those seen in tv in shows like yong zheng huang chao and huan zhu ge ge...For example, Kun Ning Gong where the Empress lives and Qian Qing Gong where Emperor Qian Long lives in.
A few fun facts abt the Forbidden City:
1. The Forbidden City is also known as Zi Jin Cheng or Gu Gong.
2. Huge copper pots are placed beside the palaces and buildings to contain water to extinguish fires should 1 break out as piped water is not that easily accessible in those days.
3. The area used to hold concubines is larger than those used for official purposes..hmm this shows what emperors spent their time doing in those days..haha
4. They used a piece of equipment that looks like a tortise to predict earthquakes.
5. The copper pots were gold plated and many of them of the gold had been scratched away.
6. The Forbidden city does not have any trees so that no assasins can hide in them. So funny.
7. The buildings were frequently hit by lightning and these caused great fires that burnt down many of the buildings. Mayb this is due to the lack of trees..hahahahhaha
8. One of the Emperor had 27 beds (think is Qian Long or Yong Zheng) that he will randomly slp on so that assasins cannot predict which bed he will slp on...hmm so troublesome to be an Emperor!
9. Yong Zheng wrote the four words Zheng Da Guang Ming (see pic) to tell his decendants not to fight for power when Emperors passed away.
10. The will of Emperors is hidden behind the Zheng Da Guang Ming signboard because it is the highest point of the Forbidden City.
11. Many of these facts were gained me thru evesdropping on the tour guides employed by other grps..ahhahahahha...this is called free-rider in Economics...
Tink enough said abt e Forbidden City..hope you guys enjoyed the pics below...
After the Forbidden City, it started to rain...so some of us suggested to check out a massage place. It is a super high class looking health and fitness centre located at Jian Guo Men.. Ok I know what are u all goin to tink..hahaha....let me declare here..it is a clean and healthy massage place...4 of us decided to go for the full body massage...I was hoping that a massage would refresh me and relief some tensed muscles....
4 of us were led to a room where we changed and then after that 4 massagers came in to start the massage....when it started.. I almost shouted...the massager was super power...really pressed hard on my back...on all the tensed spots...it was painful but after that it felt really good as the muscles really relaxed more..during the massage, could hear all the crack sounds as my legs, hands and body was massaged...the massage lasted for an hour and at the end of it..my body was aching all over..but I really felt more relaxed...not bad at all...The massager commented that she could tell I was very tired judging from my muscle tension.. hmm quite true...tink will need to rest more...
sign tmr is Monday..argh...my most hated day of the week..sianz...other than sianz is still sianz.. bluey bluey Monday...but it wil b e start of week 4 and also the start of August...one step nearer to getting home..haha...
Think tonite will slp very soundly due to the massage and also fatigue..hope I can wake up to the sound of my alarm clock tmr morning.haha...
Glad everything turned out well this weekend...
posted by David @ 9:12 PM
