The shock of the Forbidden City is not one hall. It is repetition. Gate of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Central Harmony, Hall of Preserving Harmony — yellow glaze and red walls raising the scale again and again. Arrive at opening and you can still see the stone dragons in an empty courtyard before the crowds fill the terraces.
Do not default to Badaling. Mutianyu is greener; Jinshanling is better for a long walk. The wall is not a line. It breathes with the ridge. At sunrise there is frost in the brick joints, and the distant watchtowers look like sentences that have not quite gone out.
Put a hutong day or the Summer Palace between palace and wall. Beijing is too large to cram every symbol into forty-eight hours. Leave a gap to sit down, drink douzhi, and hear a street cry.
What to do
- Walk a restored wall section and an unrestored one on the same trip. The difference is the whole argument about Chinese heritage policy.
- Xi'an's city wall is the most complete Ming defensive circuit in China, and you can cycle the full fourteen kilometres.
