一天看懂北京故宫

In the early morning, Beijing Subway Line 1 was already crowded with people going to work, but a tourist who came to Beijing for the first time got off the train near Tiananmen Square.

He has only one plan today: walk north from the Forbidden City to see why this famous palace represents Beijing.

The Forbidden City is also called the Forbidden City, and in English it is usually called Forbidden City.

It was the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and today it is the Palace Museum and part of the UNESCO "Royal Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties" World Cultural Heritage.

When tourists enter through the Meridian Gate, they are overwhelmed by the huge space before even taking a closer look at any of the cultural relics.

There is another door behind one door, and one square is connected to another square. The red walls and yellow tiles continuously lead people's eyes to the north.

Major palaces such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony are located in the center, where important state ceremonies in the past were held.

The further you go, the space for public ceremonies gradually turns into the space where the emperor and the royal family lived.

This arrangement is not just for looks, it turns the power, status and etiquette of past societies into a walkable building.

After walking for a long time, tourists begin to understand why it is almost impossible to "visit the entire Forbidden City".

If you just treat each palace as an attraction, you will soon get tired and you won't be able to remember many names.

But if you always pay attention to the north-south route under your feet, the complex Forbidden City will have a clear structure.

After noon, he left Shenwumen in the north, left the subway until later, and walked across the street into Jingshan Park.

Wanchun Pavilion at the highest point of Jingshan Mountain is one of the most direct places to observe the Forbidden City.

When I climbed to the pavilion and looked back, I saw that the palace, courtyard and city gate I had just walked through were suddenly connected into a whole.

The central route of the Forbidden City continues to connect Tiananmen and Qianmen to the south, and also connects the Bell and Drum Tower area to the north.

This is Beijing’s Central Axis, but tourists don’t need to think of it as another difficult-to-remember attraction name.

Looking along this line, the direction, order and rhythm of Beijing's old city become clear at once.

In 2024, Beijing's Central Axis was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List, but for the tourists in front of them, more importantly, it finally made the complex Beijing easy to understand.

However, looking from both sides of Jingshan, the city does not only have a grand axis.

Hidden among the dense gray roofs are hutongs, which were once daily spaces where ordinary Beijingers lived, bought groceries, chatted and interacted.

Today's hutongs are changing: some courtyards are still residential, while others have become small shops, B&Bs or cultural spaces.

In the morning, people pushing carts selling breakfast, commuters rushing to the subway, and tourists holding cameras may meet on the same narrow road.

Beijing is interesting but also difficult to understand, and this is why.

The Forbidden City allows people to see how imperial power and national order are built into a city, while the Hutongs allow people to see how ordinary life continues to grow within this urban structure.

The two are not a simple comparison between "ancient" and "modern", because modern life has also entered the old city, and history also affects how people today use it.

After tourists came down from Jingshan, they did not pursue the next famous attraction.

He bought a simple lunch and sat at the entrance of the alley, watching residents, couriers and tourists pass by.

In the morning, he thought he came to Beijing to see a palace.

In the afternoon, he found that a door had opened in the Forbidden City, and he began to understand the entire city of Beijing.

If you could only get to know Beijing in one day, would you choose to start with the grand history or observe daily life in an alley?