‘Welcome Everyone, to the Forbidden city' is what I imagine Chairman Mao's portrait is saying to the visitors streaming over the bridge and in through the gates.
Built between 1406 and 1420, for about 500 years the Forbidden city was the home of emperors and the ceremonial and political center of China. This came to an end in 1912 when the last Emperor of China, Puyi, abdicated.
The complex consists of about 980 buildings, all in different states of repair when I visited in 1991. The city had been declared a World Heritage Site in 1987 as the largest collection of ancient wooden structures in the world. And it's clearly no longer ‘forbidden' since the ordinary folk no longer need the Emperor's permission to enter through the gates.
But like any infrastructure that's not in constant use, it starts to fall apart and so the palace Museum is working through a massive restoration project.
Given Mao's driving of the Cultural Revolution with the goal of enforcing communism and removing capitalist elements from chinese society, I'm surprised the portrait is still there. Capitalism now appears dominant in China today, in practice at least if not in official policy.
Get a 15% discount on your purchase or upgrade of any topaz product when you enter discount code rdavisphoto at checkout. Click on the banner below for this offer.
