The Forbidden City

SO here is The Forbidden City, home to 24 Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Rather than give you all of the history and overload blogspot with millions of pics, I suggest you visit the following website: http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/attraction/forbidden-city.htm

I did post 7 pics of my own (video to be added later)...so let's get to it.
Pic 1 ... is outside the front gate. I am actually standing on the northern side of Tiananmen Square. Look for the posting on Tiananmen.
Pic 2... walking in through the inner gates. There are 9 knobs because 9 is the number of the Emperor. Touching the each knob as you walk in is supposed to bring good luck. I am not sure what draping yourself on them brings...LOL.
Pic 3...there is a huge restoration project underway. The right side of the pic is what it will look like. The left side is what quite a few of the less visited areas look like.
Pic 4...the figurines on the golden roofs. Gold tile roofs are for the emperor. Green signified military buildings. The figureines indicated what level of staff lived/worked in these buildings. The more figurines, the higher level of the staff. Again 9 figurines were for structures that were inhabited by the Emporor.
Pic 5...there are so many alleys and passage ways that it is like a maze here.
Pic 6...if you watched "The Last Emporor," this is the bed that they laid Puyi's mother on after she overdosed on opium. The silver ball hanging from the ceiling is the pearl (signifying the world) and there are dragons trying to come after the pearl. The job of the Emperor is to protect the world from the Dragons (very condensed explanation).
Pic 7...this is the front gate at night in the rain...little blurred but love the pic and outlines from the lights.

There is so much to see that it is impossible to see everything in one day. I hope to return before coming home.