The Forbidden City! (Palace Museum) 故宫博物院

The Forbidden City, known more often to local people of Beijing as 故宫博物院 "The Palace Museum", is usually the third thing that comes to foreigners' minds when they think of China...after the Great Wall of course, and Sweet and Sour Chicken (of which I have seen very little). The seat of imperial power during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the palace is a testament to their immense wealth and power. There are nearly 1000 buildings, and the entire palace complex inhabits a 720,000 square meter (that's 7.8 MILLION square feet) bloc of land adjacent to the infamous Tiananmen Square. To start off, here's a slideshow of some of the photos I took: 

COUNT THOSE FIGURINES!!

One of the first things I noticed upon coming to China was the importance of lucky numbers, and there are many. The wedding ceremony I went to on my first day here took place on the 18th which is of particular significance because it contains the number 8, which is lucky. I probably wouldn't have paid too much mind to this if it hadn't been that I saw no less than 5 "just married" cars--all from different weddings--while I was on the way to the particular one that I was attending. ANYWAY, so the figurines. These things were one of my favorite things about the forbidden city because they were everywhere and also had to do with the idea of lucky or proper numbers. This first picture shows the corner of a sloping rooftop with exactly 9 figurines (you don't count the figurine on either side of the inner 9)

9 was the number of the Emperor, and only he could have things with the number 9.  10 was regarded as a perfect number, but in their minds, to reach perfection meant that you were already on the path to decline. 9 was believed to be rather the symbol of excellence, the pursuit of perfection, and the supreme power of the emperor. All of the doors on the inner palace gates have 81 door knobs (9 rows of 9 knobs), and the palace was long-rumored to have 9,999 rooms in total, although a recent count put the number at just under 9,000.  Within the palace you can always distinguish which buildings were meant specifically for the Emperor (9 figurines), and which buildings were meant for the Empress (7 figurines, see below)

This next picture shows the Duixiu hill that was built inside the imperial garden. The hill is built of rocks, and has a staircase inside leading to the top where there is a pavilion. On the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar (notice a trend?), the Emperor and Empress would climb to the top to view the festivities of the Chongyang festival, and it was believed that doing so would protect their people from diseases in the coming year.

Okay, THIS was probably my actual favorite thing. This next picture shows one of the inner walls of the palace and several entryways. First of all, all of the inner and outer walls of the palace are 8 METERS THICK (26 feet). The center entryway was only ever to be used by the Emperor, and nobody else.  

This law was to be strictly adhered to, and anyone who broke it would be met with severe punishment (I'm not sure if anyone was ever so bold as to walk through his tunnel). Oh wait, I totally broke the law. If I were a LOLcat, I'd be this LOLcat:

Very clearly, not a law anymore

Now, if you don't know what a "LOLcat" is, that means you clearly haven't spent enough of your life procrastinating on the internet, so here's your chance!

Click here for LOLcats

and click here for EVEN MORE

FINAL VERDICT: The Forbidden City is AMAZING, and is an absolute must if you ever find yourself in Beijing.