The Forbidden City. The one thing that I would most like to stress about the Forbidden City is that it is *huge*. I had a map of it in my tour guide, but that could not convey just how big this place was. I thought "Forbidden City" was just a fancy name for a large palace area.. but it really does seem the size of a city!

I first paid a visit to the Forbidden City with Philip and Mike Eng, on our first day. By the time we reached the area where you must pay to get in (at which point we turned around, of course), I thought we had traveled through most of the City, and that the following area just cost money because it was fancier and more of a historical attraction. But it turned out that we had barely begun to progress through the City. I don't think pictures can truly capture the size and magnificance of this place (except maybe from far overhead...), but I tried to give a hint by taking pictures of open areas and the other buildings of the City in the distance.

You can read about the history elsewhere (and sadly, I did not pay as close attention to Ping as I should have... I was just too overwhelmed with my surroundings), but I will try to throw in a few details.

On statues: I've never understood the fascination that many people have with getting their picture taken with statues... I don't mind pictures with beautiful scenery, but statues, to me, just aren't that exciting/memorable/informative. However, I made a few exceptions on this trip.. mostly just because other people would ask me to take their picture in front of a statue, then offer to return the favor. Since I didn't have a whole lot of pictures of myself in China, I decided I might as well take the opportunities. Who knows, maybe some of the people who see this gallery will be the sort that think pictures of people in front of statues are cool... if so, feel free to explain why. I still don't understand it. I left out most of these sorts of pictures of the rest of the band, because there are plenty of better shots of the people and the scenery.