Beijing revisited, The Forbidden City

We had a fabulous time in Beijing, it was so lovely to see my daughter, and everything was new to my friend, so, although we visited places we had been to before, we saw different parts of those places.

Our first day there was very busy, we started off at The Forbidden City, where I found this statue :)

The Treasure House is now open but it was very busy, so I only managed to get a few photos. I am not sure what this is but it was amazingly beautiful.

The fact that this shell had been used as a base for this piece of 'treasure' fascinated me, this would look lovely sitting on my dressing table....hahaha.

I love these painted corridors :)

Marble sculptures, the artist who sculpted these had an amazing  talent.

Each of the two pieces above were carved from a single piece of marble.

There are some very pretty little courtyards now open to the Public, they were so peaceful, and lovely to see as it gives a more homely view of the City. I could easily imagine members of the Emperor's Court living and relaxing in these beautiful places.

Golden roofs with animals :)

Such beautiful ornamented roofs, looking as if the buildings were built one on top of the other, which isn't the case.

Another little hidden courtyard, I love the pierced screen...

...where you can peep through to more secret areas :)

Such ornate buildings, I think this was the Opera House.

The roof of a tiny Pagoda in one of these small courtyards, the various colours of the roof tiles made this look so lovely.

I certainly saw different parts of the Forbidden City on this visit, it was lovely exploring quiter areas, and seeing the pretty little courtyards. My previous visits to the Forbidden City can be seen in my blogs of August 2014 and June and July 2011 :)

It was getting on for lunch by the time we had walked round, so we decided to walk along to Beihai Park and have lunch in the restaurant by the lake, so Beihai will be my next blog :)