Just north of Tiananmen Square is The Forbidden City, so called because it was off limits for 500 years. It is also called The Palace Museum, as the sign at the ticket office states.
The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and along with The Great Wall is the most visited place in China.
This place, around one million metres square was home to twenty three Ming and Qing emperors. It contains the largest and best collection of ancient buildings in China. There are magnificent palaces, meeting halls, gardens and open areas all within the city walls and moat.
We went around 9am and the visibility was down to about a kilometre so it was difficult to see where it began and ended.
A big plus was that vendors and hawkers were excluded from the grounds but that didn't stop other ripoff merchants such as people posing as art or cultural guides from pestering us. We have got used to them by now and can get rid of them pretty quickly.
There were thousands there today. This is one of the younger fashion bunnies.
