Forbidden City

Mao. As Teresa, our guide, said, 'our great hero'. Lynne said to her, "Do you think Mao was good?" Teresa said "good, yes, he was great!" Lynne: "Even though he made some mistakes?" Teresa said that they forgive his mistakes because of all the good he did. Seems they have history book changing here just like in the states.
Inside the many, many gates, here is the square in front of the throne room where officials would gather to hear from the emporor.

Dragons guard the city on four corners.

Imperial gardens. Concubines hid among these funny rock formations when they had a 'date' with the emporer so that other concubines wouldn't see them and ruin their date. There was fierce rivalry, and many girls mysteriously disappeared due to jealousy among the ranks.

Concubine waiting bed. Each night, 10 concubines would be called to wait for the emporer. Then a eunich would randomly pull a number, and that girl would spend the night with the emporer. I would guess that eunichs were fairly rich as a lot of bribing went on.
The couple tree. 2 trees grown together. The red sign indicates this tree is more than 300 years old.

These soldiers were standing in formation, and shann tried to join them. Immediately they dispersed.

These guys were practicing walking and turning in formation. Soldiers have to be average chinese height, which for men, is about 5'5.

dragon claw tree.

Throne room.

This large pearl held by a dragon was directly over the throne. It was thought that it would be released by the dragon to fall on the thrown if anyone other than the emporer sat on the throne.

When the emporer was overthrown, the new leader had the throne moved back in case the dragon decided to release its pearl.

Behind Lynne and I, is a moon gazing pagoda for the emporer and emperess.