Forbidden City 12/16

First or all, I realize that this format for pictures isn't the greatest (although I can't see the posts), but this is the fastest way to get the pictures on and I am being charged 1 Yuan a minute so here you go. The first two pictures below attempt to illustrate the scope and scale of the Forbidden City. These buildings served as offices for the emperor and his officials. In the first picture you can also see that the building is being renovated. On any given day there is likely to be at least one building being renovated because there are so many to take care of.







The picture below is from the roof of one of the buildings in the Forbidden City. The small animals on the roofs of the buildings were used to denote the rank and importance of the building. The more animals on your roof, the more important your position. The most I counted on one building was 11, and the smallest was three, which were on a residential building. The higher a building was on the grounds of the Forbidden City, the more important that position was as well. In general, the higher buildings with more animals on the roofs were at the entrance of the Forbidden City, while the lesser buildings were in the back, which as I mentioned mainly consisted of residences.







Here's a picture of the WNEC students in front of one of the buildings in the garden of the Forbidden City. This wasn't your typical garden of flowers, however, and was mainly a garden of unique trees.