The 5th of August has been dedicated to the Forbidden City, 紫禁城 (Zijin Cheng), or only 故宫 (Gugong, “Former Palace”). The original place was visiting the city in the morning and one of the adiacent parks in the afternoon, but after the walk through of the majestic site we were smashed!!!!
But the day started with breakfast at Yong He King where for the incredible amount of 16.5 RMB we got: 豆浆 (Dou Jiang, soy milk ), 油条 (You Tiao, fritters of twisted dough), 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (Pi Dan Shou Rou Zhou, a soup), 炸荷包蛋(Zha He Bao Dan, omelette). That was really filling for both Han Xu and me. Good for a demanding day!!!
One thing that I realized at once when I started taking pics at the entrance of the City is the difficulty in balancing contrast-brightness-ISO in the camera with the white sky. The light seems to come from every direction because of the the continuous whiteness above us. So every picture has requried quite a lot of post-processing just to get the color more or less right!
But with a couples of days of delay (and long hours tonight) I finally manage to upload some of the pictures on Flickr.. and I am quite satisfied of the result!!!
Of course, real life the Forbidden City is something amazing.. The dimensions, in all 4 planes (space and time) are majestic. And also the fatigue in visiting the huge extension that covers. One can understand why the major activities of the emperor were eating, sleeping and visiting his numerous wives.. a terrible life, but someone has to live it, right? 😛
Now it’s pretty late, tomorrow (mmh.. actually today) is the 8th of August, Olympics game opening ceremony and we are going to have a dinner at home, with Han Xu’s family and watching the ceremony on TV. For this even I made my “famous” tiramisu 🙂 I hope that Chinese people will like it!!
But in the morning we are going to visit the Old summer palace, a quite vast park, not a surprise though!!! 😉
Keep in touch for updates!!!!
Dreaming of... Asia 