The Forbidden City

When I was a little girl, my daddy used to read the atlas for fun. He’d literally spend hours going page by page. Sometimes, I used to climb up in his lap and he’d tell me about China and The Forbidden City. So it’s always held kind of mystical spot in my heart.

Seeing it in person, did not disappoint.

Our crappy Days Inn is just around the corner from everything. I’ve decided, by the way, that China is not a place for budget travel. Budget equals foul. Only we're supposed to be the mid-level hotel which is why the idea of cheap hotel here scares the hell out of me.

Anyway, we drove around the corner this morning to Tianamen Square, the largest public square in the world. It is mind-boggingly massive. It was still decorated from last week’s National Day celebration which was fun to see. It’s here that I discovered that not only is Richard a bad guide, but he’s a terrible photographer! He cut off our heads in every single picture he took and never gave us warning that he was going to take the photo. Wah.

Across the street from the square is the South Gate to The Forbidden City. It goes on and on and on. I am simply in awe of how big this place is. The buildings from the Ming Dynasty are 600 years old and have mostly been restored and are quite simply magnificent.

There’s a building for everything - a building for the Emperor’s wedding night, a building for special ceremonies, a building for this and a building for that. And we’re talking MASSIVE structures. Like Parthenon in size - each one!

Bad news? The Forbidden City isn’t as handicap friendly as they advertise. We carried the stroller up lots of flights of stairs today! It was a necessary evil. Hudson took a LONG nap while we walked and he never would have been able to walk for hours like we did.

At one point though, he and Maisie chased each other like mad through the court yard of the Temple of Heaven amusing everybody who watched. They burnt off a lot of energy here. The Temple of Heaven, also built at the same time as The Forbidden City is blue in color, denoting Heaven. It’s where the Emperor came to worship.

Once again, my kids were as big of an attraction as the site. Everybody wanted to take pictures of them. Some wanted to hold them. Some wanted to kiss them. Hudson either loved it or hated it, depending if it was pre or post nap.  

Maisie favorite part of the day, hands down, was dressing up in Chinese princess clothes. The two of us made this ridiculous DVD of us flying over all the sites. It was so stupid, but she LOVED it. 

We had a fabulous Chinese meal between the two areas and after we finished The Temple of Heaven, we tried to fly a kite, a big national past time  in the area. Our guide obviously had no idea how to fly a kite. I don’t think he’d ever done it before! He kept saying there wasn’t enough wind, but I saw all these kites in the air. We tracked down these elderly men who were a bit like professional kiters, holding these very fancy spools of thread. Poor Maisie never did get her kite in the air. If I’d been able to speak Chinese, I would have convinced the old men to help us more. Richard the Loser didn’t seek their help. What is it with men? They never want help! They were actually laughing at him because he didn’t even know the kite needed a cross bow.

Afterwards, we went to a Teahouse. What fun! They demonstrated the Chinese tea ceremony and gave us a big ol’ lesson on Chinese tea, giving us five different kinds to try. Of course, we bought three of them! Maisie was very excited tasting the different teas, thinking she was such a big girl. Tom’s mother would have loved this place.

Tonight, we saw The Legends of Kung Fu Show, a very famous tourist attraction. I was a little worried the kids would be scared or they’d start whacking each other, but they loved it and why not? It’s got some incredible sets and the Kung Fu is out of this world. Those guys can really move! 

Dinner was KFC for the kids and cup of noodles for us in our room after the kids went to sleep. It’s 9 now and I’m bed bound, too. Being sick and doing so much walking doesn’t really mix well. Sadly, we just realized our cups of noodles had MSG in them. Wah. That doesn’t bode well for sleep.