The Forbidden City of China: The Mid

Welcome back and I'm back! and sorry for the 2 weeks hiatus..welcoming the business and corporate world into my student life! And here we are back into the part 2 of the Forbidden City. In this section we're gonna look into the museum and some weapons used by the previous Emperor of China as well as several halls where the Emperor presided for meeting and 'conference' with several Royal 'slogans' in every hall. Well 'nuff said..let's get down to the photos

Continuation from the previous part, I would like to focus on the granite grounds, battered for centuries and uneven...be careful when you move around as you might sprained your ankle accidentally..hehe

A rifle used by the Emperor Qianlong for his game hunting activity.

 On the left, a royal hunting spear, on the right, Emperor Qianlong's Golden horseback cover

Jade Handle of a Horse Whip

Golden Royal Horn

Upclose on the Golden Dragon Headed Horn

The Emperor's Parade Knife numbered as "the first from heaven" (天下第一）

As I headed out of the museum again, here we are at the very first hall..

The first hall..by the name 太和殿 (tai he dian) aka Hall of Supreme Harmony. There's one very amazing experience from this first hall. It was sunny and cloudy day; and thus it was a quite warm Spring on that day. But as I lent my hand into the hall, I felt that my hand just got through a magical temperature barrier. It was so cooling inside and yet the heat from the outside did not dissipate into the hall..interesting and amazing, that's a good energy flow within the hall of the Emperor..call me superstitious, but not everyone has the luck to be an Emperor. 

The 4 words 'you sui ji jian' 猷綏極建 written and 'certified' by Emperor Qianlong himself..the meaning, very abstract, it's something about the strength of a government through initiative? Any better word for that?

Three tier walkway with carvings all over..huge and majestic

The name of this hall in Chinese from right could be read as Yun Zhi Jue Zhong..允执厥中which means something like dedication.

In this section literally from right, it's read as huang jian you ji, which basically means, the Emperor is the stronghold/base of the country..

 Left: Longest Stone carvings in the world, Right: Bronze Lion 

zheng da guang ming..steadfast in action..

The final part means wu wei, basically means without reasoning or you would say no questions asked...

End of part 2 and the final part will be posted very soon!...Hopefully ;)

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The Forbidden City of China: The Beginning

It's been nearly a month since my last posting. This time we're back to Beijing....on the Forbidden City of China. Built in the year between 1406 and 1420, the Forbidden City housed several Emperor from the Ming Dynasty throughout until the end of Qing Dynasty. According to a source from wikipedia, the complex consists of 980 buildings with more than 9000 bays (many claimed that it has 9999 rooms) and covers 7.8 million square feet!! Several famous Emperor of China namely Emperor Qian Long, Emperor Kang Xi and Emperor Yong Le have resided in the palace complex. Without further ado, let's take a ride into the 'city' with panoramas to be shared.

 That's the main gate of the Forbidden City

 From here, we're able to sight the photo of Chairman Mao and the bridge which the sentry was standing on, is called the Outer Golden Water Bridge. There are 7 stone bridges spanning the outer Golden River and they were constructed in the year 1420. (not sure if it's really golden in color or not XD) 

A Sentry Guard aka Red Guard??

That's me in front of the entrance as a proof that I was there. :D

 As you enter, you will be greeted by the huge granite/concrete gate

 This is not the entrance into the Palace Museum yet.

 One of the sentry tower

 That's me again 'camwhoring'..

The tablet in Chinese Character Wu Men, literally means Meridian Gate 

A Panoramic shot of the Meridian Gate. Click for the big panorama viewing..

The Meridian Gate is the formal entrance to the Forbidden City which was popularly known as Five Phoenix Turrets (Wufeng Lou). It is the largest of the four gates in the complex.

That's my ticket, Approx. at RM30 bought at the Noon Gate

Worn out granite floors..it's uneven

As you enter, you will be able to see a very magnificent view and that hallway you see is the first hallway..and the name, it will be published in the next post.

 One of the Dragon Carvings on the bridge. It looks like it's a marble carvings though as it's cooling..but somehow

 The base of the bridge, looks like they were made from marbles..super luxurious..

And here's the bronze Gilded Lion at the Hall

Carvings and architecture

 Looking down one of the many dragon and phoenix carvings, not clear anymore due to weather upbeats.

And here's the Panoramic View of the first Hall..please click for larger view.

I'm hoping that everyone will enjoy this post and the part 2 will be up soon. More to come!!

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1000 years old Ginkgo Tree in Kamakura

Here's the continuation of one of my previous in Kamakura Heritage City. In this posting, I will be story telling about the way up to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. As one of the famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, the shrine is the most important Shinto Shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture. Originally built in Zaimokuza in 1063 by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, it was moved to its present location by the founder of the Kamakura shogunate. During a celebration, many visitors and worshipers will be flocking this city. During in the year 2007 and 2008, I was here for a program in which we were supposed to assess the traffic situation and present a solution to this issue in Kamakura Heritage City. Anyway FYI, photos dated 2007 are photos taken with Sony DSC H-1 while the year 2008 are photos snapped using the Nikon D-60. Enjoy the ride :)

Above the 3 photos were the Danzakura walkway of 1.8 km sandō (参道) which extends all the way from the ocean to the crossway of the Hachimangu Shrine. The walkway divides the two main road and imagine that, the whole 1.8 km walkway are planted with cherry blossom trees. Imagine during the Spring season, the whole 1.8 km walkway are filled with Cherry Blossoms..heavenly..

Too bad I was there for 2 consecutive winter and I'm hoping that I will be able to visit there in the Spring 2011..fingers crossed!

That's where we will end up walking for 1.8 km which is the main entrance.

You will come across this bridge after the entrance. The arched bridge was called Akabashi (Red Bridge), and was reserved only to the shogun while the commoners at that time had to use the flat road.

Mandarin ducks swimming in the pond

During the winter year of 2007, I managed to captured some sleeks instead of snow but from there it looks snowing effect..anyway, I still love it..

Here stood a 1000-year old ginkgo tree which was full of history. It was said that an assassin hid behind this tree and killed the shogun Under heavy snow on the evening of February 12, 1219. In the early hours of March 10, 2010, it was uprooted by a storm. The photo of the uprooted tree could be seen here at Wikipedia.

That's me in a photo with that tree for 2 winter years in a row as a proof. :)

And that's the Hachimangu Tsurugaoka Shrine..not huge but rich with history.

And that's all from me now..hope you're enjoying this post!

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