Beijing (II). The Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven

Just after visiting Tiananmen, we entered below Mao's photo to the Forbidden City. The first gates are public and you do not need to pay to get in. All this open areas are huge between gates. Until you get to the Emperor's inner city, everything is a succession of gates and big open spaces.

This is the real entrance, from here on, you need to pay a ticket to continue your visit.



Then, more amazing open spaces with incredible pavilions!



The emperor would receive his troops or whole delegations in these open areas.



The superposition of roofs makes a beautiful view. The mountains at the end are the park from which I took one of the photos yesterday.



Afterwards, we got into the inner city, which requires an extra fee, but it is worth paying it! The first thing you find is this famous mural of dragons.



Of course, many more pavilions, but now, the space between them is quite reduced.



A detail of one of the roofs:



A photo I particularly like ;)



In the back of the Forbidden City, there are many beautiful gardens with many rocks: typical Chinese scenic gardens. This is an example with a big beautiful rock in the middle.



And this is what the interior of some pavilions looks like.



Then, we went to Tianten Park by tuk-tuk... big mistake... the driver gave us the money in Belarusian money... we lost around 10 USD... Those notes are the same color and size than Chinese money... It was really frustrating to realized we had been cheated!!!!! ^%^&*&$%

This is the temple of Heaven, one of the most beautiful temples in China.



And this is a strange circular temple on the other side of the park... I did not exactly got what it was for though...



And this is the plan of the whole park. Quite an interesting one.



Afterwards, we picked up our baggage and went to the airport to fly to Xi'an, where we would encounter a really beautiful Chinese city which houses a real marvel: the Terracotta Warriors of the emperor Qin Shi Huang, which unified China into a single country. Quite an achievement!