Enter the Forbidden City in Beijing

“Like so many others on that day, that is where I started my tour. Once through, a sweeping square opened up in front of me. The square is so big some European palaces would easily fit in. It involuntarily made me think: “Finally I reached my goal, finally I am inside the Forbidden City”. But god was I wrong! In the distance, a couple of hundred meters away, I saw a big palace looming over a bright red wall. [...] In fact, I would learn later, this was just the smallest of gatehouses before the actual entrance – just to give you the first sense of scale!”

“When we first arrived at Tiananmen Square, the first thing I noticed was the amount of security and the amount of people. This area is one of the most famous in the entire world, so I certainly expected there to be a lot of people. However, the nearly 10-foot wide 200-feet long line completely packed with visitors still surprised me. [...] I went through at least three metal detectors and had my passport checked at least four times before enter the Forbidden City and there were cameras everywhere. However, once we were in, we could roam around as we pleased.”

“We kept walking from massive courtyard to massive courtyard, and it felt like it was never going to end. Every structure was at such a large scale it was impossible to capture it in a single picture. On top of this, every structure was so detailed that it left wondering how they were ever able to pull it off in the first place, especially without modern tools.”

“Like a lot of China, actually seeing some of the more popular exhibits involves being very pushy. EVERYONE wants to look through the observation windows and gawk at the throne rooms, and there is no such thing as a polite queue. I’m a hair over six feet tall and a good hundred kilo, so I am usually very careful NOT to shove when I’m in crowds, but it turned out to be a distinct advantage in actually getting to the front of the crowds and I got a lot of neat photos.”

“We also got a pair of audio tour guides for something like $4 each. While the thick green plastic casing felt like museum tech from 25 years ago, it actually worked quite seamlessly, using some form of location tracking (maybe RFID?) to automatically trigger relevant audio narration and even recommended walking routes, with small lights tracking where you’ve already been. Useful, as the massive outdoor Palace Museum can be a bit inexplicable. With the headphones on, we could put the device in our pocket and forget about it. Recommended.”