Monday, May 5, 2008
Beijing
There’s something ironic about the audio set return booth being located at the Gate of Loyal Obedience.
Anyway, I returned the set, got my 100 RMB (yuan) deposit back, then started shuffling things around in my shoulder bag so the long trek to my next stop would be easier. Grabbed an ice cream bar at the little cart outside the gift store...
...and decided there’s something about Communist countries that equates to rock-your-world frozen dairy products.
Back in ’76 when I was visiting Russia as a high school kid, we were faced with what one might call “really bleak options” for breakfast (ie, sardines and milk that was actually thick). Learned pretty early on to grab fruit wherever we went, but still, needed more.
Then, one day in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), we stumbled across an ice cream cart. And nirvana.
I don’t know if it’s less pasteurization or heavier cream, but once again, I’ve found it—ice cream redefined.
Showing posts with label Forbidden City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forbidden City. Show all posts
Monday, May 5, 2008
Aging with Grace
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
One of the things Holly pointed out yesterday was a system of tagging ancient trees with metal plaques that identify them by age. You can imagine how many of these tags are scattered around in a garden that’s existed for over 600 years. The two that seemed to be everywhere were green (100-300 years old) and red (300+ years old)—mostly the latter of the two.
If only we westerners valued age as much as the easterners do. In so many ways.
The Imperial Garden
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
After passing through the three palaces of the Inner Court (that’s kind of a misnomer, since you can only walk around them, not through them), you come to one last gate—very small and very subtle, compared to the grand porticos I’ve stepped through thus far. The Gate of Heavenly Unity is the back door that leads to the family gardens.
Or, in this case, the Imperial Gardens, which are significantly more impressive than most families’ back yards.
Directly in front of me, as I step through the gate, are two ancient cypress trees intertwined as a symbol of eternal, devoted love. Even the most hard hearted cynic can’t help but look at these with awe. Surrounded by songbirds and spackled sunshine, one can only imagine the mystical, magical strolls taken by regals and royals. Today, those paths are ours to follow, with respect.
Momma’s Place
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
The Palace of Earthly Tranquility, where the Empress lived.
(Photo credit: igougo.com)
Mac Daddy’s House
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
The Palace of Heavenly Purity—home to the Emperor.
(Photo credit: Picasaweb.Google.com)
The Inner Court
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
The Inner Court consists of three halls, from south to north, as I walk through them:
The Palace of Heavenly Purity comes first, and is where the Emperor lived. As representative of Yang and the Heavens, this was the single most important hall in the Inner Court.
The Palace of Earthly Tranquility comes last, at the north end of the trio, and was the home of the Empress, who represented Yang and the Earth.
The small building in the middle, The Hall of Union, is just what it sounds like—the place Yin and Yang would meet to produce harmony (intricate carvings on the exterior feature the Imperial Dragon and the Phoenix, symbolizing the Emperor and Empress) . Today, the twenty-five Imperial Seals of the Qing Dynasty are stored, along with other ceremonial items and the official palace clocks.
Compared to the three halls in the Outer Court, the three Inner Court halls are much smaller, but make no mistake—they’re large and grand by anyone’s standards.
Lions in Stone
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
See...? Everywhere. Here, this is one of two stone lions guarding a mysterious door to a mysterious stone outbuilding. It’s tucked below the steps heading east from the south platform of the Palace of Heavenly Purity. No mention of it on the audio guide, no sign of it on the myriad of maps I have. Just a mysterious little shack that earned two Imperial lions.
Here, you see the female lioness with the cub playing beneath its paw. To its left was the other lion, complete with its orb.
Makes you wonder what’s behind door number one, hmm?
Lions
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Everywhere you go, you see pairs of lion sculptures guarding gates and entries to palaces and halls. One always has a ball under its paw, symbolizing Imperial Power; the other is a female lioness with a cub in its paw, symbolizing the fertility of the royal family.
Bronze lion pairs signify the homes of officials; the number of bumps on the lion’s head identify how highly ranked the official is, the total falling somewhere between a maximum of thirteen and a minimum of eight. Anyone “ranked” less than seven weren’t allowed lions.
The most beautiful lion pair is at the entrance to the Gate of Heavenly Purity—the Golden Lions—shown here.
Shouldering Responsibility
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Each of the red double doorways marked with 9x9 gold nail heads is constructed with a high threshold—to get to the next courtyard or hall, you have to climb over the barriers that can run from a couple of inches tall to nearly a foot. The higher the step, the more important the passageway or gate.
As a sign of respect, one is not to step on the threshold, but over it, as it symbolizes the shoulders of the person inhabiting that hall.
If there‘s any place else on earth more steeped in respect and dignity, I can’t imagine where it is. Entering the Inner Court, you practically feel the heavy robes of history carefully draping over your own shoulders.
Lost in Translation: Chapter 4
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Somehow, I don’t get the feeling fire prevention has come a long way quite yet.
Into the Inner Sanctum
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
The Hall of Preserving Harmony marks the transition from the ceremonial Outer Court to the private Inner Court where the Emperor and his family actually lived. This smaller courtyard is a kind of “no man’s land” between home and the rest of the world.
On the back (north) side of the Hall of Preserving Harmony, there’s an intricately carved ramp flanked by two sets of steps, traversing the entire ninety-eight feet from the ceremonial hall platform to the “floor” of the Inner Court. In these carvings, dragons chase pearls through the clouds in an etherial image of the Emperor in the heavens. Only the Emperor himself was allowed to use this ramp (carried on platforms, the carriers using the steps on either side). This ramp is the largest in the Forbidden City, and is truly a sight to behold.
Heartbreak and History
Monday,May 5, 2008
Beijing
As mentioned before, there are bronze cauldrons sprinkled all over the Outer Court, for the purpose of dealing with fires (remember, these buildings are constructed from ancient wood). The cauldrons closest to the Hall of Preserving Harmony are the most impressive thus far, but show scars of heartaches past.
See the scratch marks? They aren’t from careless bumping or normal wear and tear, but from the bayonets of Allied soldiers during the occupation of Beijing, used to scrape the gold gilding off the bronze as part of their personal plundering.
Sometimes, war creates more casualties than we realize.
The Hall of Preserving Harmony
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Behind the Hall of Middle Harmony (right) stands the third Ceremonial Hall of the Outer Court, the Hall of Preserving Harmony (left). The entire complex of three ceremonial halls is perched atop a three-tiered platform of white marble that raises them a dizzying ninety-eight feet in the air, with steps cascading downward on all sides.
Originally used for banquets, later (as in a few hundred years, but what’s a century or two between friends?) it was better known as the Palace of Examination where the country’s best scholars would take the Highest Level of Imperial Exams in the Nation, hopeful they’d advance to the ultimate rank of “Jin Shi.”
And I thought the Minnesota driver’s license test was a stinker. Who knew?
(Photo credit: ChinaReport.com)
The Hall of Middle Harmony
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Behind the Hall of Supreme Harmony there are two more ceremonial halls—the small, square Hall of Middle Harmony (foreground) and the larger Hall of Preserving Harmony. The former is the smallest of the three halls in the Outer Court, in sharp contrast to the preceding Hall of Supreme Harmony from where I just came, which is by far, the largest.
For a little hall, this one’s worn a lot of monikers: The Hall of Middle Harmony, The Hall of Balancing Harmony, The Hall of Complete Harmony, The Hall of Central Harmony, and The Hall of Medium Harmony. During the Ming Dynasty, this was where the Emperor received High Officials in private before proceeding to official grand ceremonies.
Lost in Translation: Chapter 3
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Just in case you didn’t notice the miles of plastic sheeting and bamboo scaffolding that hid the entire Hall of Supreme Harmony....
Cauldrons
Monday, May 3, 2008Beijing
Flanking either side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are enormous bronze cauldrons. These, along with dozens of others like them, were kept filled with water in case of fire—pretty important, since the neighboring hall is the largest wooden structure in the China, the center of the Forbidden City, and home to the Imperial Dragon Throne, the seat of the Chinese Empire.
To prevent the winter from freezing in the cold Beijing winters, cauldrons were lined with cotton pads, covered with lids, then heated by open flames from below.
Dragon Spouts
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Before leaving home, Jennifer asked me to find the downspouts in the Forbidden City and photograph them—she’s in the midst of fine tuning the new house plans and is considering a similar idea for her rain garden. So off I go, shooting a zillion shots of these regal creatures. They’re everywhere, on every terrace, and every wall. And they’re fabulous.
So here you go, Jenn. Design away.
One Supreme Courtyard
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
Looking back into the courtyard I just crossed, it’s hard not to be impressed by the history of this place. Here, I’m looking at the Pavilion of Spreading Righteousness, on the west side. Today, it houses an exhibition of Qing Dynasty court music.
There’s no racing across the grounds without caution, though, unless a twisted ankle is your goal. With six hundred years of feet, horses, carriages, and carts ahead of you, the best plan of attack is to look down, step, look up, gawk, look down, step, look up, gawk....
Harmony...not.
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
I can’t believe my eyes.
This happened in Rome, when I rounded a corner to find the much sought after Trevi Fountain shrouded in green baggies and hurricane fencing.
It’s happening again. I’ve traveled half way around the world to find the Hall of Supreme Harmony—the largest, most spectacular of the Forbidden City palaces—in the same condition, draped in sheets of plastic, caged in bamboo scaffolding.
Bummer...........
Nine by Nine
Monday, May 5, 2008Beijing
As long as we’re talking about repeated patterns, let’s look at the number nine again. Throughout the city, each significant “gate” consists of huge red double doors that swing open to the next courtyard. And each of those doors have eighty-one brass “nails” (the size of grapefruits in the Forbidden City), lined up nine across by nine down.
Numbers are a big deal in China, especially:
2 - Double symbols frequently appear in the Chinese culture—double happiness, double coins, double elephants. The phrase “Good things come in pairs” originated in China.
6 - When pronounced in Mandarin, sounds much like the words for “flowing” or “slippery.” Think: Everything goes smoothly. Even though western Christian cultures consider 666 a sign of the devil, it’s just the opposite in China. They see it as triple-loaded luck. According to news reports, a license plate sporting “AW6666” sold for a whopping $34,000 US to a motorcycle dealer in the Guangzhou provence. (Makes that vanity plate of yours look paltry now, huh?)
7 - Symbolizes togetherness. Also symbolizes the ultimate tragic separation between lovers, according to the tale of the Cowherder and the Weaver Girl, whose Romeo and Juliet-like tale ends in their spirits only being able to reunite on the seventh day of the seventh month (The Night of Sevens)...every 1,000 years. For that reason, seven is also considered sad, tragedy ridden, unlucky, and supernatural.
8 - In China, eight sounds similar to “prosper,” “wealth,” and “fortune,” depending on the dialect. Throw in the natural symmetry of the digit, then write two side by side, and you get “shuang xi,” or “double joy.” The phone number 8888-8888 sold for $ 270,723 US in the Chengdu provence. The Olympic Games open on 8.8.08. A fish breeder in Singapore who deals in rare Asian Arowanas embeds the creatures with microchip tag numbers, reserving those loaded with lots of 8s and 6s for the most valuable of the bunch.
Then there’s nine. Lucky number nine. Fabulous number nine.
Oh yeah. Including antechambers, there are exactly 9,999 rooms in the Forbidden City. And that’s only because in Chinese culture, heaven alone has 10,000 rooms.
It’s the nines, baby.
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