I guess it’s a bit like photographing a sunset when you’re having a vacation at the beach. So, being in Beijing, one simply has to visit the Forbidden City. And as there are “only” 30 000 visitors allowed every day, we were a bit anxious whether we would actually make it. Ok, obviously we did. And although we had to do a bit of queuing at the entrance, the place didn’t feel overly crowded. I mean, after all, it’s the world’s largest ancient palace structure (covering more than 70 hectares).
For those of you who are as ignorant of Chinese culture as I was prior to my visit: The Forbidden City is the old Imperial Palace, located dead center in Beijing. Established at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the 15th century. The name comes from the fact that only members of the closest family to the Emperor and their imperial ministers, servants, concubines were granted access. Just a mere 9000 people were living on/in the palace grounds.
It seems only obvious, that the Fobidden city is one of the World Cultural Heritage sites of the UNESCO.
From a photography perspective, I really had to fight the foggy (smoggy) air – and the position of the sun, as we were doing most of our sightseeing late morning to early afternoon. But it sort of worked most of the time. And as you might have guessed, yellow was the primary color of ancient China. Made a nice splash on the photos…
Thomas