The essential Beijing experience

We have had the most taxing day for the children in China yet, ushering them right the way through the entire Forbidden City, the former residence of Ming and Ching dynasty emperors on a mildly hot and extremely sunny day. It is only when one goes about Beijing with young children that one realises how much there is really to walk, even from one corner of Tiananmen Square to the other. They have indeed done well, being cajoled with frequent moments of rest, rolling bottles of mineral water down the slopes of the palace buildings and indirectly discovering how rain water is drained, through hundreds of stone-carved hornless dragon outlets. They used the side of palace building stairs as slides and chased sparrows during spare moments, and we had a lengthy discussion between me and the 5 year old on politics. Here were some of the things we talked about:

Why do the people no longer want an imperial system and an emperor nowadays?
Why is it important not to run away but to defend one's land?
The importance of a country's defence ability
What is a good emperor/ruler as opposed to a bad one

It seemed to me that the size of the palace highlighted the ridiculousness of a country focussing so much on one person in the past. Louis XIV springs to my mine though - the heavenly realm 天朝大國 needed an imposing residence to assert its importance.

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