Forbidden City | spring2life take2

from imperial splendor into the poorer quarters

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

the exit gate of the forbidden city shone in such a fresh and strong red that it was almost painful in the eyes – and to the sensor, as the histogram showed. a friend later on told me that the preliminaries of the olympic games 2008 had included a real orgy in paint, even in the hutongs, the leftovers of the traditional beijing quarters, where all the roadside walls were painted grey.

of course this was only a make-up and was not connected to substantial improvements. the hutongs were a strong contrast to the splendor of the forbidden city, and a contrast to the modern, multi-story, skyscraper architecture that is the visible result of the olympics boom. the hutongs feature a similar red as the old parts of the forbidden city, but the rest is dreary and grey, except for the more touristic parts.

Tags:forbidden city, hutong, red, sony a700
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imperial tea table

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

no words, in my eyes there is nothing to add to this harmonious arrangement

Tags:forbidden city, sony a700, tea table
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on photographers

Monday, December 8th, 2008

the forbidden city of course was full of people photographing, themselves like the lady in the lead picture (which i found amazing in the iuxtaposition of a single figure against those incountable roofs), each other, the architecture, also me. a european man with a ponytail is so extraordinary that especially gals wanted me to pose together with them. but how can i blame them when i was interested in chinese faces and people.

a long time ago i was quite good in fermi estimates, so i tried to get an idea about the numbers of pictures taken every day in the forbidden city, but alas, i was not able to do a qualified guess.

the availability of electronic gadgets was stunning and gave me a little bit of an idea about the development of spending capacity now in the middle class of china. and in terms of numbers, this middle class already is big.

instead of struggling with maths, i preferred to fall back to photographing roofs, tiles and numerous shades of red on the walls. satisfying that was.

Tags:forbidden city, photographer, sony a700
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roof details in the forbidden city

Monday, December 8th, 2008

in the maze of the forbidden city, you always get carried on by the masses of tourists (local tourists in my case), but when you manage to reach a corner you can stay for a while and watch the delicate beauty for example of the roof tiles.

in yesterday’s blog entry i already mentioned b. brechts “questions from a worker who reads”, and this thought accompagnied me throughout the palaces and palaces and palaces. it kind of gets a special connotation in china, as the masses are so big that it’s only to easy to not notice them as individuals as we would do naturally in our home country.

so it was a feast for the eyes, tiring a bit after 4 hours, and the border to the garden area was most welcome at that time.

Tags:forbidden city, sony a700, tiles
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freezing in the forbidden city

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

it seems that the history of the chinese emperor’s regime is in an adapted way now repeating: legions from the working class are doing low paid jobs whilst a small number of highest class are enjoying boundless wealth. The abundant treasures of the forbidden city reminded me immediately of b. brecht’s poem “who built thebes with its seven gates?”.

freezing cold it was in there and soon it became crowded, too. the sheer number of buildings with their rich ornaments and roof decorations was impressing, the rare water bodies in the interior brought welcome opportunity to enjoy outer reflection, too.

the dark red (“ochsenblut” in german) was strong, especially in its continuity through the whole palace region, but astonishing was the fact that a chinese visitor chamaeleon-like was adapting this color.