The wall around the Forbidden City is very high!
It was built in the 1400s for the emperors of China, and as you can guess from its name, no commoners were allowed in. Once inside the main gate, the Forbidden City (walled in completely) goes on forever and ever. We just kept walking deeper and deeper into the City, through more gates, across more concrete squares, up more stairs to look into more throne rooms and government buildings.
As you can see, there were a lot of tourists there despite it being early in the day. Even as I fully realize I am a tourist, I (hypocritically?) hate them. I don't like crowds, I detest tour groups and guides, and I find their picture-snapping and milling about annoying. They ruin the mood and look of places. However, I did the same, and so, I digress...here are a few more pics:
It was extremely humid and hot (I think you can notice the haze even in the above shots), we got pretty tired of the same old, same old, and so, ice-cream in hand, we turned back to get our bicycles and head out. We biked along the outside wall:
...and photographed unimpressed guards:
...and eventually ended up at this sweet little air-conditioned cafe for lunch:
Yum! What a great day!
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