by Russell Smeaton

Created on: November 23, 2009   Last Updated: November 28, 2009

When people think of China, they have several images that come to mind. I would guess that most people think of the Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an and the Forbidden City of Beijing (not to mention Pandas, great food and great hospitality). Most locals tend to refer to Forbidden City as GuGong, or Imperial Palace but for a lot of foreigners the title of Forbidden City is still one that brings up an evocative mood.

I have visited the Imperial Palace many times in my five years in China. Why? Well, every time a friend comes to visit, they all insist on visiting the Palace and I can't blame them. It's a huge, impressive and yet daunting structure that takes a long time to absorb. It has to rate as one of the things you must do if you visit China. As you walk up to the walls, Chairman Mao smiles down at you and welcomes you into the Palace. There's no turning back now. The layout of the palace is vast and takes up a decent sized portion of land, made up of courtyard after courtyard, building after building, room after room.

This brings me onto my first problem. I would have to say that the first time I went I got bored with so many buildings. Sorry, but there it is. My first impressions were of a massive (and certainly awe-inspiring) metropolis of room after room. Each room had some dusty exhibits which I duly peered at, reading the badly translated notes. In all fairness we could say that I was overwhelmed by it all, but it's all down to perspectives. Even if I was overwhelmed, my response was to be bored.

My second problem were the touts. I've travelled in places were you expect touts latching on to you but I wasn't expecting it in China and certainly not in a place where you have to pay to get in. None the less, the touts work the Imperial City with style. They approach you gently and with good humour. They engage you in some nice gentle banter about China and travelling. They then hit you with the fact that they are either a teacher or a student and have an art gallery. The warning bells will probably start ringing before this happens but when it does, plan your escape route. Maybe I'm just too cynical and in true cynical style, my excuses started getting more far-fetched the more times I was approached - "Sorry, my religion forbids art", "I'm colour blind", "I hate art", "The only art I'm interested in is the one that exists around me in the real world". I could be wrong, they could really be teachers or students. If anyone goes along

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