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.

The Silk Market! 秀水街

(The following dialogue is a typical exchange between a buyer and seller at the 秀水街 Silk Market in Beijing. Keep in mind that the exchange rate is about 6 or 7 RMB / Dollar)

“HANDSOME BOY! You want to buy polo Lauren shirt! Good quality, good quality! Washable Cotton! You understand washable, yes? Very special model, you won’t find this anywhere else!”

“这个蓝色的多少钱?”（How much for this blue one?）

“For you? I give you special price. If it was anybody else I give you this price (she pulls out her calculator and punches in the number 1350 RMB, which is about 200 dollars), but you are so handsome and you speak Chinese so I give you very, very special price! (punches in 600 RMB) Only for you! Only for you!”  

“虽然这个衬衫很好可是我觉得太贵了。50元怎么样?” (Although this shirt is very nice, I think it’s too expensive. How does 50 RMB sound ?)

“50 RMB! Are you crazy, I make no profit! You are so hard to bargain! Come, look—very good quality. Cotton! You are so handsome, this color—just for you! How about 400 RMB?”

“太贵了！” (Still too expensive!)

“Because you are so handsome and you speak so well Chinese, I give you my best price (she punches in 300 RMB into her calculator) Only for you!”

“不用了，谢谢” (Thanks, but—no thanks) At this point I strategically started to walk away, and she got really antsy.

“Ok Fine, 100 RMB!”

“60!”

“OK 80!”

“好的，我买这个衬衫” (Okay, I’ll buy it)

“Wow, you good bargainer!”

(End Dialogue, and FYI, this is a very abbreviated version, it can easily go back and forth for 10 minutes or more….it's really so much fun)

The Silk Market in Beijing can easily provide hours of amusement, as you might be able to tell. Some of the fake clothing is actually very convincing (I won’t tell you which ones are fake when I get back), but the real fun is not in the purchases, but in fact the purchasing. The silk market is an indoor venue that houses around 1700 vendors that sell everything from fake designer clothing (like for instance, Ralph Lauren polos, or items that are clearly just plain white t-shirts with a logo from Versace, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana etc.), to fake watches (which are “Automatic!!” –meaning that you have to shake them to make them work…well, kinda work for maybe a day or two, at which point the clock hands fall off), to handbags (genuine Plada bag! Good Quality!), to pearls (which generally are actually pearls), bedding, assorted jewelry, electronics(not recommended)….really, pretty much anything you could ever want. 

The vendors start out with absolutely ridiculous prices, and if you accept their initial offers, SHAME ON YOU. Their first prices are usually marked up 500% if not more, and it is really not that difficult to get down to 1/6 of their asking price, or even cheaper. Before going, I read several online bargaining guides specifically for this market, but it really just takes practice once you get there. (The techniques mentioned in the online guides are really effective!). This place is FULL of tourists from all over the world; I think they get something like 60,000 customers per day on the weekends.

When making deals with vendors, they do their best to keep the negotiated price a secret between the buyer and seller—that way, they might still have a chance of tricking other buyers into paying high prices. As such, they always punch the prices into a calculator rather than saying them out loud for others to hear. I did all my negotiating in Chinese, so we actually talked about the prices out loud (I guess they assume that most buyers won’t understand the Chinese), and I think I may have gotten some brownie points for using Chinese. They will compliment you to the end of the earth, and really do anything to make sure you buy it from them. Don’t believe them when they say things like “you can’t get this model anywhere else! Very special!” …because in reality you can find the same exact shirt at 30 or more different vendors. (AP Econ-ers: think perfectly competitive market!)

One word of caution, make sure to double check the quality of the particular item you are receiving before leaving the vendor. I was bullied by some vendors  (more like guilted, the girl pretended to cry!!) into buying a “real 100% cashmere very good quality” Burberry scarf, and the one they were showing me was actually pretty nice and soft. Just after I handed over my money, she told me, “Hold on, let me get you a nice new one, only for your 妈妈!”. I didn’t realize what she was up to and didn’t think to check the quality again, but when I got home I realized that the second one she gave me was total garbage…

It’s definitely worth it for the experience, I went twice! Just make sure to bring your bargaining cap and you’ll survive. Also, be polite and smile a lot, it goes a long way