Forbidden City 2

Less info, more photos... Here is the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the Emperor would hold court. This building had the most decoration of any of the surrounding buildings, specifically the number of sculptures on the corner of each of the roofs number 11, any of the surrounding buildings would have less than that number or incur the wrath of the Emperor, or some such thing.

A gold bas relief of dragons on one of the doors of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The outer doors toward the back of the Hall of Supreme Harmony
The Nine Dragon Screen Wall, is one of the most famous sights in the Forbidden City. It is an extremely detailed large-piece mosaic of hand carved ceramic tiles. Each Dragon is unique in its features and each tile is an original. There is one portion of the white dragon (shown in this photo) that is made of wood, there are various legends surrounding the 'why' and 'how' of the carved wood tile... all on the audio guide :) Here is a tree in the Imperial Garden. Most of the trees are supposed to be 300-400 years old, and are really pretty amazing to look at. I think Jeff and I both agreed that this was our favorite part of the Imperial Palace.
The emperor's personal rock climbing wall! No, seriously, it was. The only way you could get to the top was to climb, so once a year on a certain holiday, the Emperor and his concubines would climb to the top. There was no water pipes at that time, so they rigged some type of gravitational water device so the dragon fountains would spew water. There were other 'rockeries' around the garden, but none as massive as this one.
As we were exiting the city by the north gate, this was a detailed corner on one of the 20+ foot doors.
I have TONS more photos of things inside the City, but I thought I should keep it to a minimum, especially since we are paying for internet per minute here in the hotel. I might have to do a recap of our trip once I am home featuring photos I haven't shown yet... since I just realized I didn't upload any with Jeff from that day! Whoops, sorry Hubby!

Planning to make it to the Temple of Heaven today, by myself, if it is not too cold outside... if it is too cold, I might just take another nap :)