First Morning in Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City

Friday was sunny and 80 degrees with just enough breeze. We left for Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City by 8:15 in the morning in an air conditioned coach.  Took a while to get there...lots of traffic.  Did you know that people in big cities are controlled by a number in their license plate that determines which days they can and cannot drive?  20% of the cars are off the roads each weekday...they can drive three out of 5 days.
The picture above is Zhengyangmen Gate.

There was some kind of wreath laying ceremony by some dignitaries in the Square, so the entire area was blocked off for about an hour.  Guards like this young man kept us under control.  We chose to cross the street and walk around the ceremony to enter the Forbidden City.  We passed the Museum of Chinese History...you could have spent a whole day in there, I'm sure!  On the far side of the Square was  the Great Hall of the People.

Monument to the People's Heros

 

 

Hundreds of Chinese people waited in line over an hour to get in to Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in order to have a quick glimpse of Mao in this large building at the end of the Square.  They say a million people can stand in the Square for special events, celebrations and military reviews ~ it's the largest public square in the world.

The Forbidden City is at the other end of the square.  There were thousands of people there to visit a place they could not even enter for five hundred years.  It is just beautiful, rich in history and stories of intrigue.
I did lots of reading this winter before we went on the tour (most of the historical ones were junior high level reading, so I got the basics).
Yung Lo became the third emperor of the Ming dynasty in 1402.  He was known as the "Black Dragon" and was hated and feared by the Chinese people.  He built a great palace ~ the largest in the world.  One million slaves and prisoners were needed to build it.  It was started in 1406 and Yung Lo moved into the City in 1421.  All main buildings faced south for good luck ~ money, health and happiness came from the south.  Deer, flowers, fruit, butterflies, and birds were other good luck symbols in the city.  Wives and children each had a palace.  24 different emperors of the Ming and Qing dynastics lived in the Forbidden City between 1421 and 1911.  During the Chinese Revolution in 1911 the emperor was overthrown and doors to the City were opened.  It is the largest and best preserved group of ancient wooden architecture in the world.  Occupying an area of 720,000 square meters, the Palace Museum has 8,707 rooms.  8,000,000 visit the city each year.
The Gate of Heavenly Peace was the main entrance of the imperial city in both the Ming and Qing dynasties, where the Emperor promulgated his edict.  Tian An Men is tall and solemn and its rostrum looks majestic with its upturned eaves, carved beams and painted rafters, its yellow tiles and red walls.  It is now the symbol of new China.

In 1949 Mao Tse-tung brought communist rule to the country.