A Quickie in
Beijing - Forbidden City
Hiee all...
During the week before Christmas 2005, I had an assignment around China with my
trip started off in Guangzhou then making its way to Tianjin and then to Beijing
to catch a flight back. I kinda planned my travel route to have a little 4 hours
window to visit the Forbidden City (outside of it) - A Place in china that I can
feel a sense of great character never change
all the time.....
I was there in Beijing and had a chance to take the insides of the Forbidden
city during a Snowy winter a couple of years back. Now again in winter - less
the snow, the colors in the early winter morning is really great!!...Here are
some shots I took ...
Started off from my hotel and took a cab and not really sure where he dropped me
off (as long I know its the Forbidden City...). Realized later that he dropped
me off at the east Gate. And it was a lucky one I thought. The Sunrise was just
nice on the left side of the frame if I were to take shots of the east gate.
As you can see in the above shots, the blue sky is really punchy enough to go
without any use of polarizer.
The rivers around the forbidden city was frozen at temperatures of about -7
degrees C...its really freezing!!!.
I was all wrapped up with my beanie and gloves + 3 layers of clothing!!!
Took a stroll by the river side and grabbed a shot of the tall walls of the
place and also the dried trees around the vicinity.
Once in the quadrangle, there were some Chinese army doing foot drill in
preparation for some visitor ceremony.
Right after i took this shot, the commander turned to my direction and shouted
at me to stop shooting....
Not sure why...i guess because of the DSLR and the 80-200 lens.....hehehe
looking like I'm from some press...
While strolling about...I saw a local Chinese wanderer in a traditional dress,
was attracted by his was of dressing and dried out wrinkled face
so I tried to approach him to get a portrait shot of him....
As above....surprisingly, he did not mind. Well...as a token, I gave him 1 yuan...(about
25 cents). He looked really happy ...
Walked about the areas and took some postcard type of photos to summarize my
visit there...Spend a couple of hours there and then
headed off out form the place to wards Tiananmen Square...
The crowd seem to grow by the minute and people morning in large groups through
the small gated arch walkways within. Got a chance to
grab a shot of people touching the golden bolts of the large doors of the gates.
They're really shiny......obviously from the touching by the visitors..
Lastly, at the front gate, I happen to see two security guards chatting with the
portrait of the late chairman in the background....They look as if they are
gosssiping about him....heheh....hence this shot...
Okay ..... thats all that I have this time round....hope this shots shared some
of the stuff I see during my trip there.
Have a great day ahead!! A really opportunistic coverage of Beijing in a really
short time....
rgds,
Sulhan