The square was built in 1651 and has been enlarged 4 times thus far. The square covers 100 acres and is supposed to hold 1 million people at a time. It is the largest open-urban square in the world.
It also houses the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. His embalmed body is there in a crystal coffin for people to view. We didn't get to see Chairman Mao, which is probably for the best. Mia and Rhett would have been a little freaked out by seeing a dead guy. We'll put off that loss of innocence as long a possible for the kiddos.
Here's the main entrance to the Forbidden City, with Mao presiding over it. It was "forbidden" in the sense that the emperor had explicit control of who entered and left this palace.
This is a inner courtyard before you enter the main area. Thanks to the last summer Olympics in Beijing, the Forbidden City has been refurbished, repainted and rejuvenated.
Forbidden City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It's claim to fame is that it's the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
Yellow is the colour of the Emperor. Almost all roofs in the Forbidden City have yellow glazed tiles. It was simply stunning.
This palace was so vast. We only got to see a small portion of it. It has 980 surviving buildings, with 8,707 rooms.
Yet another good day in Beijing...
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