the forbidden city

Today I went to the Forbidden City, which is where the emperors used to live before the revolution. It was pretty impressive, very very big. If you've ever seen the film the Last Emperor, it's shot a lot in the Forbidden City.

This is the throne of the emperors. The photo doesn't really capture it, but it looks pretty cool.

There are a lot of stone courtyards in front of different buildings. I got an audio tour guide that told me different stuff about each spot I was in. So I learned a lot... which emperor did what in each building. It was pretty weird to hear about how one building was the traditional spot for emperors to spend their wedding night, and then peer inside and see their bed...
I picked a ripper of a day for it! There are lots of collections of treasure of the emperors, and a hall of clocks. 
I walked around the Forbidden City for a few hours listening to the doover, and then climbed this hill out the back date that was formed by the earth they removed to dig the moat around the palace (you just don't get enough moats now days). Beijing is almost completely symmetrical, at least in the inner part. Behind the Forbidden City from this direction is Tiananmen Square. The the right and just below the horizon, you can see the Grand National Theatre, which is the big egg shaped building.

Afterwards I was pretty hungry, so I looked in my Lonely Planet and found a place to eat not too far away. It was in the back streets, or a hutong, and so I walked through these tiny little alleyways for ages. Some of them were so narrow, three people couldn't walk abreast in them. These kiddies stopped me to have a chat. They were very cute, and I wanted a photo of them skipping, which is what they were doing before we started talking. But little kids being little kids, they wanted to pose!

It was really nice to be able to pick out a place to go, and get there. In the last few days I feel like I'm really beginning to understand Beijing. A glass of Sangria was pretty nice after a hot day of walking around.