21 days of travel through Asia – part V

It was made in the period of Qing dynasty and for the royal house members as a place of rest and relaxation, a getaway from the summer heat of the Forbidden City. 294 acres just for fun? Yes, that’ the way nobility lived. It’s composed of the Longevity hill and Kunming lake that takes up three quarters of the area. You need a few hours to walk around it and see the 3000 structures there (including pavilions, towers, bridges and halls on the northern shore of the lake. It’s also the most noticeable part of the palace that receives most visitors. On the other side of the hill is a place with dense trees and elegant Chinese gardens, a perfect place to enjoy nature. And at the end a true gem is hidden – a copy of a water city Suzhou, built in the time of Qing dynasty. It’s a 300 m long trading street along the river, made by imperial order to mimic city Suzhou, quite a long way from Beijing. There’s an interesting story behind it. As a pilgrim the emperor came to the city of Suzhou, to the monastery and saw a woman of extreme beauty. He wished to move her his palace, but due to strict Buddhist rules, he couldn’t make a nun his concubine. So he made a Quanzong temple as his temporal palace, where the nun was transferred to. So the most beautiful nun did become his mistress, until one day when she got ill. »What is wrong,” he wanted to know and she replied: “It’s many hears since I’ve left my home and I’m homesick. I wish to return home.” The emperor said, he’d soon take her to Suzhou. Six months later he asks the nun to accompany him to Suzhou and within an hour they arrive. The nun could not believe they arrived so quickly, but seeing the merchant street with the river, she couldn’t believe her eyes. Both sides of the river had shops selling goods from Suzhou. The people spoke the dialect of Suzhou. Everything reminded her of home and she felt that way as well. The emperor made this merchant street just to suit his beautiful concubine and moved many merchants and shops there, to give the replica the flavor of the original. Ever since the beautiful nun loved to take walks along this street reliving her hometown. I haven’t seen her, but I do believe, she still comes here for walks, hidden among the beauty of the place. I’d like to invite you to see it all HERE.

Half the day was behind us and our legs have hurt so much, we just wanted to sit in the nearest shade. But there was no time. One of our party headed toward Hong Kong and had to catch the flight, the rest of us headed back to the center. We still had the tour of the Forbidden City ahead of us and had no idea, how absolutely huge it was. So we had to hurry along to hunt for treasures of the Ming and Qing dynasty.

North of the Tiananmen square is the biggest palace in the world, with a six meter defense ditch around it and ten meter tall walls, counting 9.999 rooms. You may enter from the north or south. The distance between both gates are just below a kilometer, while the distance between the east and west gate is 750 m. The palace is divided into two parts, the south part was for governing and the north part as a imperial residence.

The construction began in 1407 and it took 14 years to finish. Over a hundred thousand craftsmen and workers were involved in the construction of the mighty complex. A huge quantity of stone was transported from the suburbs. Ditches were dug along the road and filled with water that froze and allowed them to slide the stones into the forbidden palace during winter. Ingenious, right?

The inside of the city is mostly yellow, which represents the royal color, but red and white of the stone is also present, despite thousands of people walking on the pavements. We got lost inside the palace, overwhelmed by the feelings. New chambers took our breath away. Touching the walls made us feel respect, mystery and curiosity about the lives of the royal family back in the day. My eyes could not believe what I’ve seen.

The time was mercilessly running out on us, so we had to hurry along. Before exiting I just simply collapsed to the ground with my back on the huge pillar, without words. My feet were burning up. The sight of this pile of decorated stone, hand made, gave me chills. For a few minutes we sat in perfect quiet reflecting on our thoughts and feelings. It’s hard to imagine it, but you can see the picture collection HERE, it might just help you a little bit.

Exhausted we went to the hostel and fell to bed. The night was over in a blink of an eye and the alarm clock woke us up. It was time to visit the mighty Great Wall. IF my feet could speak, they’d ask about the state of mind I was in, to use them to walk again.