Today (Wednesday) I went to the Forbidden City. And they let me in.

I'm not going to go into much detail of my excursion, accompanied by my German buddy Wolfgang Dreyer of Dresden. You can read about it in the Press Herald.

Instead, I'll give you photos. (I did take some videos, but they don't really capture the enormity of the Forbidden City so unless there's a public outcry to see them, I will spare you)

Much like going to the Great Wall, walking through the Forbidden City is a spiritual experience. You are walking through courtyards and on steps that were once walked upon by 24 Emperors of China.

You are touching some of the very statues and doors that they touched. These 980 surviving buildings were constructed between 1406-1420. America had not even been discovered by Christopher Columbus yet!

We don't have this kind of history, which is why it was important to see it and feel it.

Like the Great Wall, it is something I will never forget.

Before I give you the photos, I must tell you about the taxi ride we took over. Drivers in Beijing don't follow rules. They swerve in and out of lanes, they ignore traffic lights often.

(Yet, until today, on the way back, we hadn't seen an accident)

Anyway, we took a cab from the Main Press Center to the Forbidden City. He was a cool driver, considering that he was cutting in and out. Traffic was heavy and then other drivers started cutting us off.

Several times, while continuing to accelerate, our driver would turn to us in the back and laugh, taking his hands off the wheel to point out a driver that had cut us off.

He did about 60 down a side street, beeping his horn to let everyone know he was coming.

We made it, and here's some photos:

Upon entering the Imperial Garden, we were greeted by this:

Then we came across the Thousand Year Pavilion, where the Emperor would pray:

You immediately notice the roofs:

They may look the same, but each one is different. Each corner has a number of statuettes on it. And the number of statuettes determines the importance of the building. Twelve is a good number to have. This one wasn't very important:

As we walked, we came across some scary creatures, such as this:

And a guard lion that really frightened me:

We also came across this amazing Nine Dragons Screen:

Eventually we reached the Palace of Heavenly Purity …

and the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most important of all Halls, where the Emperor would spend most of his time.

Finally we came to the Gates of Supreme Harmony, which open to the huge courtyard leading to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Try as I could, I couldn't budge them.

So we left, heading out of the South Gate, or the Meridian Gate. This is the most famous gate, and you can tell it was quite busy:

We headed over to Tiananmen Square when we were done, but to tell you the truth, it isn't anything special.

Yes, some of China's most historic moments happened in it, but it is really just a large town square.

A little disappointing to find that out.

But the Forbidden City was very special.

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