Beijing - Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City


These are right next to each other. Tiananmen Square is the Chinese equivalent of Woodstock, with people taking pictures of each other against well-known scenery. The Forbidden City was madness -- there are people crowding around, and many things are badly lit. Since I wasn't there to do a documentary, and I thought it better to look at things without the camera, and to buy postcards for the lonely nights at home.

Click for a larger version Tiananmen Gate

From Tiananmen Square. The portrait over the entrance is Mao. The fog is real.

Click for a larger version The Museum and Friendship Store
Click for a larger version The Mao-soleum

Like Lenin and Sukhbaatar, he was away at the spa.

Click for a larger version Heroic scuplture outside the Mao-soleum
Click for a larger version Historical inevitability, as seen from the side
Click for a larger version Stylite
Click for a larger version The Honor Guard's Washing

Outside the front gate of the Forbidden City

Click for a larger version Building just inside the Forbidden City
Click for a larger version A courtyard
Click for a larger version The Dragon Gate

There are 9 dragons, and the gate is much too wide to photograph. This is for texture. I started to photograph the sections so I could put it together, but there was a lady selling photographs that had been put together. It was a bargain.

Click for a larger version The front of one of the halls

Again, for texture