The Forbidden City

There was a canal or little river running through the Forbidden City that had five bridges going across.  Each bridge was for a different virtue or good quality in a person. They were benevolence (kindness), righteousness (being truthful), rites, intelligence and fidelity (being faithful).

The water from the river came down through the area from the Summer Palace. The Emperor wanted to keep the river pure since it was his drinking water. If people went swimming in the water they would be killed.  If they even put their hand in the river their hand would be cut off! That was very mean of the Emperor but it probably kept people out of his drinking water.

 If someone had business with the Emperor they could come into the outer courtyard and wait. They stood on 14 layers of grey brick stones in the hot sun and couldn’t eat or drink anything.  This was to show how powerful the emperor was.

In the Forbidden City you walk through a building that is kind of like a gate.  Then you see another big square with buildings all around.  Then when you got to the other side there was another building like a gate!  Then another one.  Then another one. 

 

In each of the buildings when you walk through the doorway you went over a threshold that's taller than a normal threshold.  It would be 6 inches tall or even 1 foot tall. 

This was for two reasons.  First, it kept out the dirt from outside.  More important it kept out evil ghosts.  The Chinese believed a lot in ghosts.  Some ghosts were good and some were evil.  Ghosts had no legs so they could only either glide on the floor or fly through the air.  The threshold kept the evil ghosts out since they could only slide on the floor and they could not jump so they could not get into the house.

The tourists were all rubbing the brass knobs on the doors when they walked by.  They were doing this for good luck.  I tried it.

I rubbed a ton of knobs.  Then I looked down and found a coin on the ground so it must work!


At the gate some people were dressed in ancient Chinese costumes.  They were made out of silk and they were red and bright colors.  

As we left we walked through a nice garden. It had blossoming trees and plants.  The Forbidden City had no trees or plants.  The Imperial Garden was shady and green.  

There were also some very old gnarly tree stumps that were from ancient trees.  

I was getting very hungry.  David said we were going to eat lunch.  We drove in the bus to a different area of the city.  When we got there the lunch place was like a dining room in the middle of an area with small shops around the edge that sold books and nice statues and dishes.

It was a vegetarian restaurant but they served fish.  They had potatoes in curry sauce, spicy tofu and mushrooms, orange juice, fish wrapped in seaweed, green beans and hot peppers and finally white rice!  I was happy to see that rice.  I asked for some soy sauce and enjoyed my rice bowl.