there were many interesting sites in the forbidden city. because it is also undergoing restoration you could see some parts that had not yet been restored where the old paint was still showing through. Even though the color is much more brilliant when it the building has been repainted, it is also amazing to see the paint that has lasted through the years and to think about how old it is. If you look at the bed and the doorways in person, they are shorter than normal doorways. It is said that this is because the emperors back in the day were very short. The bed seen above was probably long enough for someone who was about 5 feet 5 but any taller than that and I doubt you would be very comfortable. The golden figure up top is a clock. The clock museum had a wonderful collection of British, China, French and other country made clocks. This was one of the many impressive clocks that were on display. There were a series of musical, wind-up clocks as well; howeover, I was unable to get a video because of the crowds that surrounded them.
在故宫里面我看到很多的东西.方因为故宫是一个历史悠久名胜古迹我觉得很有意思. 在里面我看到皇帝的床. 他的床很短可是我的表哥告诉我以前的皇帝都很矮所以长一点儿的床没有用. 在故宫里面也有几个博物馆. 一一有很多很多的钟. 各种各样钟都有. 多大数是金色的 所以非常漂亮. 很多钟是英国给皇帝可是也有很多是中国自己做的. 逛完故宫以后我们去北海公元拍照片. 在北海公元我看到很多老人跳着物, 唱着歌.
Some more History:BEI HAI PARK:
"
Beihai Park (
Chinese:
北海公园;
pinyin: Běihǎi Gōngyuán) is an imperial garden to the northwest of the
Forbidden City in
Beijing. Initially built in the 10th century, it is amongst the largest of Chinese gardens, and contains numerous historically important structures, palaces and temples. Prior to the end of the
Qing Dynasty in 1911 this area was connected to the
Forbidden City, but since 1925 it has been open to the public.
The Park has an area of more than 69 hectares, with a lake that covers more than half of the entire Park. At the center of the Park is an island called Qiónghuá (琼华) Island with a highest point of 32 m. In the north of the park there is a large pool called the Taiye Pool connecting the two other pools, which are called the Middle Sea and the South Sea r
espectively. Therefore the Taiye Pool is also called the Beihai.
Beihai literally means "Northern Sea". There are also corresponding "Central" and "Southern Seas" (Zhongnanhai). The complex of buildings around Zhongnanhai houses China's paramount leaders.
The Beihai Park, as with many of Chinese imperial gardens, was built to imitate renowed scenic spots and architecture from various regions of China; the taihu lake, the elaborate pavilions and canals in Hangzhou and Yangzhou, the delicate garden structures in Suzhou and others all served as inspirations for the design of the numerous sites in this imperial garden. The structures and scenes in the Beihai Park are described as masterpieces of gardening technique that reflects the style and the superb architectural skill and richness of traditional Chinese garden art [1] (1)"
THE FORBIDDEN CITY:
"he
Forbidden City was the
Chinese imperial
palace from the mid-
Ming Dynasty to the end of the
Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of
Beijing,
China, and now houses the
Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the
Emperor and his hous
ehold, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms[1] and covers 720,000 square metres. The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture,[2] and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987,[2] and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.
Since 1924, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum, whose extensive collection of artwork and artefacts were built upon the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Part of the museum's former collection is now located in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Both museums descend from the same institution, but were split after the Chinese Civil War."
"The site of the Forbidden City was situated on the Imperial city during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Upon the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor moved the capital from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the south, and ordered that the Yuan palaces be razed. When his son Zhu Di became t
he Yongle Emperor, he moved the capital to Beijing, and construction began in 1406 of what would become the Forbidden City.[4]
Construction lasted 15 years, and required more than a million workers.[6] Material used include whole logs of precious Phoebe zhennan wood (Chinese: 楠木; pinyin: nánmù) found in the jungles of south-western China, and large blocks of marble from quarries near Beijing.[7] The floors of major halls were paved with "golden bricks" (Chinese: 金砖; pinyin: jīnzhuān), specially baked paving bricks from Suzhou.
[6]
From 1420 to 1644, the Forbidden City was the seat of the Ming Dynasty. In April 1644, it was captured by rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, who proclaimed himself emperor of the Shun Dynasty.[8] He soon fled before the combined armies of former Ming general Wu Sangui and Manchu forces, setting fire to parts of the Forbidden City in the process.[9] By October, the Manchus had achieved supremacy in northern China, and a ceremony was held at the Forbidden City to proclaim the young Shunzhi Emperor as ruler of all China under the Qing D
ynasty.[10] The Qing rulers changed the names of the principal buildings, to emphasise "Harmony" rather than "Supremacy",[11] made the name plates bilingual (Chinese and Manchu),[12] and introduced Shamanist elements to the palace.[13]
In 1860, during the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces took control of the Forbidden City and occupied it until the end of the war.[14] In 1900 Empress Dowager Cixi fled from the Forbidden City during the Boxer Rebellion, leaving it to be occupied by forces of the treaty powers until the following year.
After being the home of 24 emperors—fourteen of the Ming Dynasty and ten of the Qing Dynasty—the Forbidden City ceased being the political center of China in 1912 with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China[15]. Under an agreement with the new Republic of China government, Puyi remained in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was given over to public use,[16] until he was evicted after a coup in 1924.[17] The Palace Museum was then established in the Forbidden City.[18] In 1933, the Japanese invasion of China forced the evacuation of the national treasures in the Forbidden City.[19] Part of the collection was returned at the end of World War II,[20] but the other part was evacuated to Taiwan in 1947 under orders by Chiang Kai-shek, whose Kuomintang was losing the Chinese Civil War. This relatively small but high quality collection was kept in storage until 1965, when they again became public, as the core of the National Palace Museum in Taipei.[21]
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, some damage was done to the Forbidden City as the country was swept up in revolutionary zeal.[22] During the Cultural Revolution, however, further destruction was prevented when Premier Zhou Enlai sent an army battalion to guard the city.[23]
The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 by UNESCO as the "Imperial Palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties",[24] due to its significant place in the development of Chinese architecture and culture. It is currently administered by the Palace Museum, which is currently carrying out a sixteen-year restoration project to repair and restore all buildings in the Forbidden City to their pre-1912 state.[25]
In recent years, the presence of commercial enterprises in the Forbidden City has become controversial.
[26] A
Starbucks store,
[27] which opened in 2000,
[28] sparked objections
[29] and eventually closed on July 13, 2007. Chinese media also took notice of a pair of souvenir shops that refused to admit Chinese citizens in order to
price-gouge foreign customers in 2006" (2)
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beihai_Park
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City
And then ME!!!This is a monument for the death place of the last emperor. That tree is the tree where he hung himself. The plaque has the story of it! This was not at BeiHai park but at the park that was across the street for the forbidden city. Belo
w are some picture of me and the first picture is of me and my cousin henry! Henry works in sells for an air and ventilation company and he was up for the week with his
co-workers on a work sponsored vacation. He told me to hug the wall and take a picture...walking down the stairs other people were doing that too...it's a china thing I guess.
Check out the videos below!
some people were dancing in the park. they weren't the only ones but they were the biggest group! the two ladies up top were leading and they were all singing. and then there were others that were just there practicing for performances later. lots of older people dancing though. lots. for exercise. the park charges admission its about 2 yen.
Our Harbin trip lasted three almost four days. The train we took there was an overnight train with a trip lasting about 10 hours so that we went to sleep when we got onto the train and by the time we woke up, we were preparing for arrival. On the way there we slept in triple bunks . The condition of the train was a lot nicer than I expected and tickets for that car costs about 250RMB which is the equivalent of 37USD. On the way back we rode in the nicer car with tickets costing about 450RMB or 66USD. There were four people to one room on this car. The bathroom and the hand washing rooms were nicer and the rooms themselves had doors and locks whereas the on the first train the bunks were in an open area. no doors, no privacy, but clean. you had to use a stick to flush the toilet and it was a squatter where as the toilet on the train ride back was a western airport style toilet. 
The temperature when we were there averaged about -20C in the day and about -25C at night, at least that is what I think the tour guide was saying. We got the chance to watch two middle aged men and two middle aged women swimming in a lake during the day. they dove from the platform into the man made lake. Before hand, they walked around and took pictures with the spectators. Taking my hand out of my coat hurt, even with gloves on I could not keep it out more than 5 minutes without it starting to freeze so i couldn't even imagine swimming at that temperature! It was 
here also that you could sit on chairs and push your way across the ice with pics. Afterwards me and my friend Jessie went horseback riding! It was a short ride but it was fun. The horses did not need anyone to guide them. they knew where to go and when to turn back. It was a great time!
The second park was full of ice sculptures and ice lanterns. All very large and all very impressive.
有一次我跟十
个人一起滑下, 让我们的速度很快!
