Conspiracy! Corruption & Theft! – The Forbidden City of Beijing

An absolute hotbed of political intrigue, corruption &  murder within the city walls! More about all the carry on below…

There have been so many highlights of my Grand Tour of China.  The Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, The Pandas.  All on my Bucket List of places to visit.  The next highlight was the trip to Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing, a Chinese Imperial Palace built in the Ming Dynasty.

Andy & Me in Forbidden City

Tiannamen Square, is extremely important to the Chinese people, as it is where  the Mausoleum of their leader Chairman Mao is situated. He founded the People’s Republic of China, on 1st October 1949 in the square, and this is the most important date in the Chinese calendar.  On this special day thousands of people gather in the square to pay homage to their leader who died on 9th September 1976. Whilst I was there, you couldn’t help but notice the lines and lines of people snaking their way around the square queuing up to see the Mausoleum, which is free to enter.  The heat and humidity in the square was almost unbearable, yet these dedicated people were happy to queue for hours just for a glimpse of their leader.  Here’s a photo I took of some of them.

Queue for Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum

Forbidden City

Did you know that Tiannamen means ‘Heavenly Gate’ in the Chinese language, and leads into the Forbidden City? Which brings me nicely to tell you about this fascinating place.    Built for the Emperors and higher echelons of of Royalty.  Including concubines, Eunuchs, soldiers and thousands of other privileged people.  Having said that the Forbidden City was thus named, not only to keep people out, but mainly to keep people in!  It reminded me of the Palace of Versailles.

The Forbidden City consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 hectares (over 180  acres).  Unfortunately we only had a short time to look around the numerous buildings and temples.  I would highly recommend putting aside at least 2 days to really explore all of the beautifully named Palaces:  ‘Hall of Supreme Harmony” ‘Palace of Heavenly Purity’ ‘Palace of Earthly Tranquillity’ ‘Hall of Mental Cultivation’  to name but a few…..  Someone inside those walls had a great imagination for names!

Our Guide Andy navigated us around the City which was teeming with visitors, and extremely busy – well, it was August…., enthralling us with stories of how the Emperor and his Household lived.  Evidently it was a hotbed of conspiracy, corruption, murder, theft, and had a strict pecking order.  The Concubines, for instance, hand picked from the age of 13-16yrs,  were selected to produce  children for the Emperor.  Those who gave birth to boys were elevated to Imperial Consort, which is where the conspiracy & murder comes in to play.  As some concubines were known to kill the babies of their rivals in order to be closer to the Emperor!  They also bribed the Eunuchs (with money and jewellery) as the Eunuchs were not able to perform sexually.   Talking of Eunuchs.  These were young boys from  around the age of 10yrs who were unwillingly castrated by their parents, and then sold to live and work as servants and when they were older,  keepers of the concubines ‘chastity’ within the walls.  No wonder they had a bit of an attitude about them!

Managed to get ahead of the crowd to capture this shot!

I found the time I spent there, absolutely fascinating and vowed to definitely go back and find out more about this Forbidden place!            If you are interested in following in the Great Emperors footsteps, on our Grand Tour of China Holiday, give me a call on  08004086106