Is the Opposite of Forbidden Crowded?

The Forbidden City which these days is just incredibly crowded was next on our list of things after seeing Mao, or the best wax version of him. The Forbidden City was once the palace at the center of ancient China. Actually it wasn't that old compared to some of the other palace sights but there aren't nearly as many old buildings as you would think in China due to the fact that most of them were built out of wood and thus burned down, usually more than once, over the course of the centuries. The Forbidden City was big though the main arch for entering the city alone was impressively gigantic. The architecture was very similar to the palace in Korea but at about five times the size. Actually the one in Korea sort of looks like the miniature model version of the huge Forbidden City. The buildings one after another used to house all sorts of royal offices and things having to do with ancient China. Oddly maybe the most famous view of the Forbidden City today is the entrance with Mao picture on it, which in a fitting metaphor for all China was under construction. What was really amazing about it all though were just the sheer number of people there. My dad noted that it was better than he remembered as they must have cleared out all the beggars.

Every time some mentions clearing people out, and in China that's mentioned more than occasionally, I can only think of the scene in the Princess Bride where the authorities are clearing all the criminals out of the forest before the big wedding. There weren't really beggars there but there were a ton of people outside the main entrance offering their services as guides. We already had a guide, who took us to the Great Wall also recommended to us by some people at the Beijing Wall Street Journal office. There were a bunch of facts about what different rooms were used for a what not but honestly I don't really remember much of it. What I do remember was there was one point where the crowd of people trying to see some throne or what not was so intense that I basically got elbowed until I bruised just trying to get near the front and then found there wasn't really anything particularly worth seeing. The best part there was that some of the rooms were air conditioned which was a nice break from the crowds and the heat. After seeing the Forbidden City we saw a few other big sights around Beijing including a big drum tower that was nice enough, but it was only later I remembered that it was the spot where some crazy person attacked people just before the Olympics began. We also saw a few of the remaining old village sections of the city which used to be so famous but have mostly been torn down.