We're adding more to the first day

Pictures will never do justice to what I wish I could convey about the enormity of the Forbidden City. Most lasting remnants of great civilizations can be traced back to one thing - abundance of slave labor or peasant labor. The greatness of man was built on the backs of the poor. The Forbidden City with all its grandeur was finished in just 14 years back in the mid 1400's. That is incredible. You can see some of the massive work on this inner wall. There were dozens and dozens of walls and buildings like this section. The city is divided into several sections. The front of the city faces east, of course. As you head west into the city, access became more and more restrictive and selective. Very few were allowed into the back of the city where the emperor lived, slept, and ruled. Below you can see what I believe is pieces of furniture from one of the rooms. Now, history is not without a sense of irony, inside the first gate is a gift shop and a basketball court. Mao Zedong must be rolling in his grave to have this going on in the city.

Jumping to the summer palace, this is a restored section of a long corridor gazebo. It is beautiful.

This is the furniture that I mentioned. This is the bedroom of the emperor. That is some headboard. Honey was trying to figure out a way to get that home.

Spence was a little more alert in this one and decided to show you some of the details of one of the gates at the Forbidden city. He was pretty chilled at this point and kept saying something about not forgiving his daddy for making him do this. No wait, that was Michelle saying that.

This is one of the inner gates or walls. It was massive.

Daddy, I'm tired. So am I son. I think I'll go to bed now.