I met up with David from Bicycle Kingdom at 9.00am. The shop was full of bikes and after a quick trial, I decided on the city bike with a basket. We set off towards the Forbidden City leaving the narrow park and rode along the busy street. The morning seemed cool but grey and sunless. We approached the east gate but the doorway was closed. Cycling alongside it and the moat, we arrived at the north gate or the marauding gate. The walk along the emperor's road was haphazard and busy with the tours. Passing over the threshold into the first courtyard the space is maginificent. The paved stone highlights the elevation of the emperor's wedding palace and there are three steps up to the platform. Immortal animals corner the palace, a dragon's son and a crane. The roof top has fire animals protecting the eaves. The whole city is built with run off water slopes which stream through the dragons' mouths at the edges. The wedding palace is surrounded by incense baskets.
We walked the entire line from north to south and looked at the Mongolian palace and its furniture. The paint on the first palace was pristine in the colours of gold, green, red and yellow. The southern most palaces are untouched and faded green. The winter water bowl is tarnished and scratched from raiders.
The palace museum contains the treasures from the Qing Dynasty from 1750s. The jewels are lapis lazuli, cat's eye, jade, pearl, gold and coral. The craftsmanship is intricate, such as spheres within spheres, 3 stamps on a chain from the same stone and the jade mountain carving preventing the flood.
Outside the east gate, we walked around and back to the north to pick up the bikes. We cycled through town and arrived at Huilin Restaurant for Golden Tofu, spicy green beans and corn.
The roses outside the Temple of Heaven are a colourful display. We walked inside the Temple and wondered at the 3 tiers of the perfect domes. I ran up the steps and took a peek at the tablets inside. The Chinese writing says: pray for the harvest. This is where the emperor used to come once a year for the harvest. And if they knew there was no rain, then he would go to the white altar. The watching fire stove is still there today, and the last lantern totem and the echoing wall. There are of course other phenomenon such as the 7 meteorites in the park, but these are the most significant.
We stopped to listen to the call for exercise in the park and to play the feather hackey sack game. The singing was a popular melody, sweet sounding and upbeat. One white blossom tree flowered in the pine park.
On the walk back, a hawker was removed from the park by a guard. I just managed to exchange 20 kwai for the bat and shuttlecocks for when I go to the park on Sundays. There are artists who paint in water Chinese characters on the pavement: "What is beautiful in the mind cannot be seen". The characters disappear in seconds.
The road we took to Tian An Men Square was long and wide. The doors were open at the square and the portraits of Chairman Mao and Sun Yat Sen were big displays. We took more photos and then visited the egg shaped National theatre sitting on a lake.
The rest of the day we cycled through Hutongs, passed old temples and keepers of clean streets and fruit stalls. Cotton pollen floated in the air creating an ambience like moving underwater or getting caught in a slip stream. The movement through the city was on a slow mo setting.
