The forbidden city, on a typically smoggy day

The main entrance

Inside the front courtyard

Some old, faded painted ceiling beams. I'm guessing these are originals from when it was occupied.

The enormous main courtyard

Our local friend who was very helpful in getting around the few days he was able to join us

The roof of the most important building in the world (based on the number of creatures protecting it)

A beautiful roof

These random strangers asked our Chinese friend if they could get their picture with us. Seriously. I'm wondering if they'd ever seen white people before in real life.

Old Beijing meets new Beijing

Classic Chinese towers on the hill outside the wall

Just another of the dozens of really cool buildings inside the forbidden city

A courtyard full of mini pillars

A pretty nice throne room

Carved steps, unfortunately quite faded by now

It was _deathly_ hot while we were there. I don't know if they had trees here when the emperors lived here, but it was like walking through a giant brick oven.

Us in the forbidden city!

Some fine detail on a roof

More of the painted ceiling beams that I love

The beautiful wall of 9 dragons

A different style of roof decorations here, that almost feels like it'd belong in one of those Mexican-Chinese fusion restaurants that seem to be a bit of a recent fad.

An especially colorful part of the palace

A pretty fancy dining set, and finally some trees and shade!

Most of the imperial treasures were carted off to Taiwan when the communists came into power, but of the few that remained is this enormous jade carving of a mountain scene

An amazing carving from fire coral

Storks over the forbidden city

A nice little courtyard, and an incredible, rare bit of shade

A painting along the top of an interior wall

A really neat private, three-story theatre

Musical instruments?

Another faded (possibly original?) but beautiful painted ceiling

An enormous water clock. Sounds like a fun fluids exam problem.

Every single roof is adorned with fun protectors

A tiny, tiny roof probably for like a janitors closet but they were still able to pack in some protectors

A unique building, with a cylindrical top (pretty much all others are purely rectangular)

And inside one of the most impressive interiors in the forbidden city

The Hill of Accumulated Elegance. Can't get more Chinese than that!

A final throne room

"I want a turtle, but make it look fierce"

We walked entirely through the city, and popped out on the other side.