The Forbidden City

I'm fascinated by this place. This is where ruling emperors lived and it was totally out of bounds to the common people. It is absolutely vast, there are gates and palaces and gardens and courtyards and its goes on forever. We spend nearly 3 hours here and we didn't see it all. I was amazed by the detail in the workmanship, the carvings and the colours - apparently it was completed in 1420!

We looked at Tiananmen Square first, which is a huge public square of no particular beauty but of course, steeped in history. It has Chairman Mao's final resting place but there were hoards of people queuing to go inside, so we just wondered around for a bit marvelling at the crowds of people and tourist groups all wearing the same colour hats or carrying flags so that they could identify their group - all a bit wearing really but you couldn't really escape the crowds, it was part and parcel of Beijing.