The next morning was grey, murky and more akin to the weather us Westerners tend to associate with Beijing. 

Pete and I were in for a long day.  In order to accommodate our request to visit the Beijing Air & Space Museum at Beihang University, we were going to have to whizz around the mammoth Forbidden City site covering some 180 acres.

Located in the centre of the city, opposite Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City was built between 1406 and 1420.  It served as China’s Imperial Palace between the Ming and culmination of the Qing dynasties, with the 980 buildings housing emperors, their families and servants, and also acting as the ceremonial and political centre for the Chinese government.

The site is recognised by UNESCO as being the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world, and the palaces are typical of the period and region.

As with the Summer Palace, much of the site was under restoration – a constant process, one imagines.  Indeed, greeting us on arrival was a huge portrait of Chairman Mao, flanked on either side by scaffolding and tarpaulins.

There was an awful lot of it, and the murky but humid conditions were not especially pleasant and certainly did not help the photographic inspiration flow outside.

The things that did capture my imagination were the impossibly intricate – and in some cases massive – jade carvings that were displayed inside many of the buildings.

A collection of weapons – some quite “creative” (read brutal)! – was also among the more interesting parts of the whistle-stop tour.

After lunch we headed to the aforementioned aviation museum, and you can read all about that over on Global Aviation Resource, should you so wish:  Beijing Air & Space Museum at Beihang University

Next time, China’s best known feature:  The Great Wall (+ The Temple of Heaven).