Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City More Minor Courts - Part 1

 

Ok, enough of religious sculpture! Let us go back to the maze of more minor courts in the palace. When will we ever end our exploration in the Forbidden City??? The answer is, never! Even one full day is not enough to see everything in the palace. And again, above photo, look at the names they give to these courts..... 

Entering each with it's own gate, door sign, compound etc.

Some of the courts have exhibit of it's own. More history about the place, and the people living there in the past. I don't even have time to see everything! No need to mention whether you have time to read everything! Just look at what you fancy, and they go watch a documentary when you have the time after your visit to learn more about the history or the place here. 

But seeing the place in person, that you must do when you are here. To be there, in the hall, looking at the ceilings and the space. It's something you can't experience via books or videos.

To stare up at those ceilings. So much details! So look at how high they are. How elaborated. 

Or to see the colours of the hall in person, and all the calligraphy hanging there.

Peeping into the minor offices and study room of the ancient past. Imagining what daily life was like here a long time ago. Perhaps the closes you could see that would be the movie "The Last Emperor".  Now I feel like rewatching it to relive all the places I've visited in Beijing.

I leave you here with an intimate corner of this hall, with all it's calligraphy hanging and reflecting from the mirror. Words. Characters. Writings. They were somehow so important to the Chinese. As if those characters have power itself. So much respect for the writings. 

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Sculpture Exhibition - Part 3

 

They even have a smaller hall just dedicated to Buddhist related sculpture. And although it was relatively small, the display inside was still as impressive to me. It's like they have so much treasure in the palace that even those non-main exhibition is still a treasure to look at and admire, do you get what I mean? It wasn't that they were trying to showcase the wealth of the country, but it's just that, they do have a lot of treasure in China! Lots and lots of old and ancient treasure. Art so fine that almost everywhere you look is a treasure. 

The minor hall as mentioned. 

And some info of the hall's display.

Yet look at all the pieces here. Elegant in their own rights.

Beautiful pieces of the 18 monks.

And so many Buddhist related pieces that I'm only showing you those I love.

The details of each piece was just mind blowing. So many hands! Each carrying something unique.

Or this elegant piece on what I thought looked like a 'bangku', lol.

But it is always the simplest pieces that always captures my attention. Nothing fancy. Just something simple, minimalistic, and kinda pure. I love looking at all these pieces in photos even after I'm back from China. Having these here in my blog, is like I own a piece of them here now. And I can always come back to view and admire them and remember that time I went to visit them in Beijing :)

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Sculpture Exhibition - Part 2

 

Primitive stone carving art was also part of the exhibited items shown here. Perhaps to signified how old stone art was, or how advance China was to already have these long time back? It's just simple lines, nothing too elaborated. But it still looks kinda cool.

Here is a larger piece with more details. Just a stone picture framed up.

Or one of dragon! I love this one. A Dragon chasing a man?

And then there are the more detailed Buddhist religious pieces. 

Although they all kinda looked similar, yet everyone is unique. And I am never tired of looking at them.

This guy here, completely made of stone, yet looked so gentle and delicate. It kinda looked middle eastern somehow. 

And for some reason, this piece was one of my favourite. I took so many photos of this one single piece. Looking at it just makes me happy somehow.  The posture, the facial expression, it's just filled with so much joy :)  I hope you like it too.

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Sculpture Exhibition - Part 1 and Lunch

 

Catching up as usual on my blog post, we continue on the Forbidden City. Why is this not ending yet? We've only reached half way! So that means lunch time! And since we only got one full day inside the palace ground, we have brought our lunch and snacks in with us to eat while we take a break from all he exhibitions and halls. So we were somewhere between these beautiful two courtyards, and decided to have our lunch here since it was less crowded here. 

We found some long benches opposite the hall, and sat down with all the other Chinese tourist to have our lunch, Chinese pancake which was also our breakfast! Best value for money meal in China! You buy one for like 2sgd or less? And eat it as two meals. It's pretty tasty too!

The shop was just opposite from where we stayed, and they also have hot soya milk which was delicious! I think it's so much better than a hot coffee in the morning! 

Both our lunch, lol. No, it's not pathetic. We have no time to go find a place to sit down for a meal. Plus food inside the palace would probably be expensive. I notice that most Chinese tourist bring their own snacks, and pretty healthy snacks too. I often see them munching on fruits, whether in the park or at the museums. It was just so acceptable to just bring your own food to eat. I like this kind of culture. It's so much more frugal that way, not to mention healthier!

I also got a sweet snack for myself as dessert. This is yam biscuit, also from nearby our hotel. It was so yummy that I think I ate it twice. Then again, everything is yummy to me if it has yam in it. After finishing our meal, and drinking our own water, we continue on with our exploration. The next few exhibition halls were some of my favourite. 

Here is a sneak peek from outside.  I could already anticipate I was going to love it. I love stone sculptures very much. 

Even the sign outside the hall was a piece of art by itself. I love Chinese calligraphy. I love Japanese ones too. Not too sure about Koreans though. Do Koreans have calligraphy? OK, I just googled it, and no I don't like Korean Calligraphy. But interestingly, I like Vietnamese Calligraphy. Saw some in my recent visit to a temple in Danang, and it was surprisingly beautiful. I also just googled it, just to confirm that they are indeed worth my likes :P

Entering the stone sculpture hall. Three cool deities welcomed us. I don't think it's a religious deities. But the devotion to religion thru art is something I think is just so beautiful, even though I am not religious myself. I can admire beauty on it's own right? And I do admire the passion behind it. It's just that, I find it hard to get religion. 

Buddhist heads?

A cool piece in the centre. Pretty huge too. Love the posture of the statue.

A general or warrior in a corner, another huge statue. I think Chinese art is so under rated as compared to western art. Maybe it's because I'm less exposed to Chinese or Eastern culture since I'm lousy at my mandarin language. But with the free visa granted to my passport, I'm beginning to learn more and more about China. 

Nezha? I didn't know this was called Nezha until the animation movie of it came out. I have not watched it. But this was the kid god with with fireball for legs, right? Yeah, my Eastern legends and stories aren't great either. I have no compass to my own culture. Is Chinese even my culture? 

But I do like Buddhist art. That I am sure. It's just so peaceful to look at. Serene. And Calm.

Usually everyone is always kinda smiling in Buddhist art pieces. Tranquility. Peaceful. Calm.

I want to say I like them voided of colours too, cause it gives off a very minimalistic feel to it. But I realised I also have a few collection of coloured paintings of Buddhist art later on to showcase on my blog. Maybe it's the simplicity of it? You'll see..... But I definitely like these stone ones, especially with lights shinning on them and reflecting from them :)

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Clock Exhibition - Part 2

 

Last post about clocks. After this post, I need to go back to processing more photos before I can post again. Note that every photos you see on this blog is hand picked for a reason. It's because I find them so beautiful, meaningful, special that I can't bare to let them just remain in the darkness of my hard disc.

Some of these clock seems to capture a scene in time, a slice of life. Like this one with a balcony platform of people looking out from it.

Here is a zoom in view of the platform. Amazing piece!

A whole opera stage of a clock next? With three performers on top singing to you perhaps?

Back to the more European style clocks. All these screams Charles Dickens stories to me somehow! Lol.

Or the old man and the sea clock from Hemingway's classic?

A twin clock that reminds me of a chess competition clock :P

European Angels on clock. 

And lastly, a magical luggage clock. I bet you could open up the case to find more fascinating things inside. But as a visitor, this was all we could view from the outside..... I bet all these clocks were some royal person's favourite pieces. I bet someone spend hours just looking at it, admiring it or even playing with it like a doll house. All these timepieces, they have seen so much in this palace. Yet their faces revealed no secrets, except the time that is slowly ticking by...... What a beauty time was, is, will be....