not-so-secret (yet somewhat hard to find) treasures of the forbidden city

If you've never seen the Forbidden City (or Palace Museum, as it is sometimes called), a little bit of explanation may be required. In the Ming and Qing dynasties (about the 15th century to the early 20th century), the Forbidden City was the home of the emperor, his empress and concubines, his eunuchs, the many servants of the palace, and so on. The average Chinese person was forbidden to enter without special permission, thus the "Forbidden" part of the name. And it is truly a city unto itself. There are hundreds of buildings and courtyards, gardens, squares, walls and gates. When you go to the Forbidden City, you spend a lot of time in the open air, walking from building to building, exhibit to exhibit. It is massive--we were there for about four hours, and only visited about a quarter of the area on display.

While walking around the Forbidden City last week, in addition to the entrance fee, we paid a few extra kuai to take a look at a couple of special exhibitions. Actually we only intended to see one of them: the Hall of Clocks, a huge hall containing examples of clocks from the palace grounds, some of which were gifts to emperors, some of which were made by the Chinese. However, after wandering around following a vague map of the palace grounds for awhile, trying to find the Hall of Clocks, we mistakenly paid entry to the . . . what did they call it again . . . ? Something like the Hall of National Treasures? No, that sounds too much like a Nicholas Cage movie. I'm not sure what it was called exactly, but it sounded like the kind of place where the Hall of Clocks might be kept. Anyway, they had exhibits of jade, jewelry, and stone drums, as well as some really beautiful gardens and architecture. Here are only a few of the many shots I took of both of those special exhibits:



Relief of dragons from the Qing dynasty


Entry to the exhibit of ceremonial bells



Bells used during rituals and ceremonies



Ben and the dragon face off


Ben loved this big red door



Just a few of the European clocks on display



Enormous Chinese water clock from the Qing dynasty.



I don't know if these clocks look as cool in the photos, but they were really amazing in the display, incredibly detailed and intricate. Many of them were animated, or crafted to look like things other than clocks (like tables or birdcages).