Beijing - Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City 天安门广场，故宫

6/7/2014  Beijing, Tian’anmen Square (天安门) and The Forbidden City (故宫)

Forbidden City entrance

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. It is located in the center of  Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.

Ti'anmen Squre

Tian’anmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China,  named after the Tiananmen gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the fourth largest city square in the world. It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. 

Aaron:

People's Hero Monument
Chairman Mao's Memorial

We first stopped at Jing Hill （Prospect Hill ),  immediately north of the Forbidden City. There used to be a back entrance to the Forbidden City but now it is the exit. We took a bus to the front gate. When we arrived at Tian’anmen Square, we decided to take a walk around Chairman Mao’s Memorial. There were multicolored flowers decorating it. The body was very well preserved.

walkway of Forbidden City

We finally went in the Forbidden City. It is now called the Palace Museum. It was the house of the final two dynasty’s ( the Ming and the Qing dynasty’s ) emperors and their wives. There were tons of halls with lots of treasures. There even were gold clocks! There were all sorts of items like pots and chopsticks.

Gordon:

Tian’anmen Square is my favorite place. It is very interesting. It even has a map inside. But it is not like nowadays map. It shows the old building structures before they got turned down to build the Tian’anmen Square. Can you guess what Tian’anmen Square looks like? It has a picture of the first Chairman Man on it. So he is famous. Can you guess a famous person and place? I don’t know but I can tell you that it is awesome!

forbidden city

Tian’anmen is actually a gate to Forbidden City. It is now called Palace Museum. I think the name is like that because it has a lot of treasures. That is all original. Tell you why, because emperors lived there!