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....

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Clock Exhibition - Part 1

 

Finally! After escaping the maze of courtyards, we found ourselves back on track visiting the not-to-be-missed halls! One of them is the clock exhibition hall. I think Chinese character signage are so much cooler than the western alphabetical ones. Just look at it! It's almost art!

And so we enter the realm of time...... Clocks and clocks of wealth being displayed here.

It was surprisingly very western! Most of the pieces were from Europe. Most of the pieces were gold in colour. And a lot of elephants were featured. I guess there are no elephants in China? I just googled that, and apparently China do have elephants, at Yunnan area. That made total sense since Yunnan is near Thailand area....

I must say, I saw more European clock here in China than I ever did in any of my visits to Europe! Noted that I haven't been to many places in Europe, but still, the amount of clock found here is overwhelming! So many that it needs two blog entry!

Another elephant clock here. I like elephant clocks, cause they reminds me of the elephant world in Discworld. Maybe there were some truth in the stories. Maybe our universe is indeed carried across space by 4 elephants? Wouldn't that be cool?

A very French looking piece of timepiece with what seems like a twin goat? So pretty.

Another elephant?

Every piece found here are so elegant. 

So much details. A true piece of art. Do people even make clocks like these anymore?

Some info behind this boy clock. Whimsical looking isn't it?

Or a classic looking Greek clock piece?

A whole house of a clock? This one reminds me of a LV luggage :)  I bet this clock is more expensive than any LV luggage!

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Other Courtyards - Part 2

More couryards, sorry! All of them were nearby, so we visited all out of obligation! But remember, all their names are different as shown on the door sign! 

Hey, isn't this the same picture I posted in the last blog entry??? Lol.

Inside the cool hall with writings all around.

Nope! It's not the same hall cause the  writings and signs are different!

I am just amazed how much words meant to the kingdom! Civilisation! How far they have come to-date! Now when you think of China, you don't think of great literature. You think of TikTok!

Here is a garden outside one of the smaller courtyard. I love it cause it's petite and secluded with no one there. I guess even the tourist got tired of visiting all the corners of the palace. You do need to walk a lot to cover all these grounds! We spend a whole full day there and I bet we missed a few corners ourselves too!

Lovely giant jar of water. They are there in case there is a fire, water is readily available since most of the structures are made of wood. But when the water is calm on the surface, it looked really serene just being there in the quiet garden.

Unique corner of a courtyard. I can't even tell if this is just an optical illusion! They way the wall seems to curve!

Silhouette shot, from a hall looking out into the garden. Love the doors so much! Why don't people build doors like these anymore? Don't they have laser technology to do these now? 

Another interior moongate.

A picture of a moongate with lovely characters on top of it. Something about quietness?

Beijing 2024 - Forbidden City Other Courtyards - Part 1

There seems no end to the different courtyards that can be found in this palace ground! Feel free to skip ahead if you started to find all these boring. Heck, even I'm kinda running out of words to described all these courtyards. And this is only the first major attraction that I've visited since I landed in Beijing! Don't get me wrong, I felt grateful and happy to be able to visit all these places, and I love it when I am there physically. I love all these photos, and there must be a reason why they are all in my blog now! Hahaha. But let's proceed on with more courtyards for now!

Small ones, big ones, they are everywhere!

Look at the same of this one. I find it rather hard to remember their English names. Perhaps the chinese ones are easier to remember? Some official information for your reference above and below.

Who on earth comes up with these names???

Inside one of the 'studio', beautiful wooden carvings. I love wooden structures.

Everything just feels very rich and polished. 

I always thought that Chinese have no taste in interior decorating. This trip to China totally changed my perspective of that instantly. I thought to myself, maybe they kept all the good stuff inside the royal palace or among the rich nobles? The colour scheme here were totally my type!

Love these shades. The chair? Not so much.

I just love these dark rooms with natural lights shinning in. All those carvings and glass? Their shadows and silhouette was everything that made these halls shine! Love them! Ah, maybe that's why they made it into my blog entry! Ownself answering ownself's question, lol.