Chapter 33 Special foreign guests visiting the Forbidden City

Beijing's Qipan Street and the resplendent ancient buildings on the central axis are well-known far and wide, and are world-renowned, which can be called an unprecedented spectacle.The Forbidden City (formerly known as the Forbidden City) located at the core of the central axis is the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is the largest and most complete ancient building complex in my country. The Forbidden City is a new capital built by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di on the site of Yuan Dadu. It is divided into two parts: the "front court" and the "back court".The former dynasty was mainly composed of three main halls (Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall, and Baohe Hall). Among them, the Taihe Hall, commonly known as the "Jinluan Hall", is the core part of the Forbidden City. It is more than 36 meters high and has 72 wooden pillars. There are golden dragons pasted on the far root, surrounding the Jinluan Hall, and a cricket dragon on the top. It is the largest wooden structure in the world. The "Hou Ting" is mainly composed of the Three Hou Palaces (Jiaotai Palace, Qianqing Palace, and Kunning Palace), the East and West Six Palaces, and the East and West Five Institutes.The gate of Qianqing is the dividing line between the "former court" and the "rear court".The surrounding palace wall is 3000 meters long and more than 10 meters high. There are exquisite and gorgeous turrets without a single nail built at the four corners of the city wall.The Qing Dynasty, who traveled from the Liaodong Mountains to Shenyang, established the Shenyang Imperial Palace in Shenyang. After entering Beijing, the Qing Dynasty expanded and repaired the Forbidden City according to its own architectural style, making the Forbidden City perfect day by day and becoming a magnificent building that spans the ages.According to an expert survey in 1973, there were 8,704 rooms in the Forbidden City.In the past, it has been said that there are 9999.5 rooms, which is half less than the 10,000 rooms in the Jade Emperor Tiangong. This is the false rumor of the Ninth Five. On October 10, 1925, Li Yuying wrote "The Palace Museum" and inlaid it on the outer wall of the Meridian Gate, the south gate of the Forbidden City. Since then, the Forbidden City has officially opened.After liberation, the Palace Museum gradually changed the Ningshou Palace where Empress Dowager Cixi lived, to the Ningshou Palace where Cixi lived, in order to allow Chinese and foreign tourists to visit better, so that tourists can enjoy the magnificent architectural art of the Forbidden City while savoring the rare treasures. The Treasure Hall changed the Fengxian Hall, where the Qing royal family worshiped their ancestors in the Forbidden City, into a Western and self-made watch hall displaying the Qing Dynasty.And some palaces and institutes were turned into jade exhibition halls, painting exhibition halls, porcelain exhibition halls, gold and silverware exhibition halls, etc.By the 1970s, the various exhibitions of the Forbidden City tended to be perfected, and the countless rare treasures in the collection were all in the eyes of tourists, making people dazzled by these rare treasures.It reproduces the vicissitudes and glory of the Forbidden City for nearly six hundred years.

In the 1970s, a certain company in our camp had been guarding the Palace Museum, so I had more opportunities to visit the Palace Museum.Once, I saw everyone vying to watch a long picture inside a glass cover. I took a closer look and it turned out to be "Along the River During the Qingming Festival".The national treasures of the Qing Dynasty all exist in the Forbidden City, the Old Summer Palace, the Summer Palace and Zhongnanhai.However, after the massive looting and burning by the British and French Allied Forces in 1860 and the Eight-Power Allied Forces in 1900, everything from cultural relics to national treasures disappeared.Only the priceless national treasure "Surfing the River During the Qingming Festival" was taken away by the last emperor Puyi while fleeing.It was the great fortune of the country and the great blessing of the people that it escaped the two lootings of 1860 and 1900.No wonder people stop and linger in front of this picture.It interprets people's deep national sentiment towards "A Picture of Shanghe During the Qingming Festival".

One day in 1973, after watching a large number of exquisite mechanical watches and self-ringing clocks in the clock museum, I fell into deep contemplation.The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty that closed the country, but it was open in the purchase and development of watches and clocks, leading the trend of the times.In that era of cruel competition, the Qing Dynasty did not introduce technology related to people's livelihood, nor did it buy Western ships and guns to protect its own national defense, but tinkered with these small clocks and clocks, allowing the royal family and nobles to enjoy the squandering How can there be no invincibility in the endless court life, or invincibility.

The Palace Museum, which is famous both at home and abroad, is full of tourists every day.Chinese people who come to Beijing usually want to see what the sacred Jinluan Temple looks like. Foreigners, including VIPs invited by the Chinese government, come to China for tourism or visits, and they also take visiting the Forbidden City as the first choice of sightseeing items, so that they can see the magnificence of Chinese architecture. The scenery of the Forbidden City. Kissinger made a secret visit to China on July 9, 1971.His only outing in Beijing was to visit the Forbidden City on July 10.For the sake of secrecy, all tourists in the Forbidden City were cleared on this day.In the empty square in front of the three main halls, in the Hall of Supreme Harmony with a building area of ​​2,381 square meters, this special foreign guest from the other side of the ocean who visited China in secret seemed even more mysterious and mysterious. The comrades-in-arms of the guards also felt the sacredness, majesty, solemnity, atmosphere and tranquility of the Forbidden City for the first time.

In January 1975, Thailand held its first free election in 40 years and formed a coalition cabinet with Kerry Bhamo as prime minister.Less than half a year later, Kerry Barmer visited China on June 30, 1975.During his visit to China, like other state guests, Kerry Bhamo also visited the famous Forbidden City.I joined the Guards of the Kerry Bhamo tour of the Forbidden City.I saw Zhu Chuanxian, Director-General of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accompanied Keli Bhamo on the tour.During this visit, Keli Bamo stayed the longest at the Danbi Stone behind the Baohe Hall.The staff introduced to Keli Bamo that this Danbi stone was carved by 20,000 craftsmen, and it took 28 days to transport it to the Forbidden City with 1,000 mules.Moreover, in the winter when the dripping water turns into ice, wells are dug along the way, water is splashed into the ice road, and then huge logs are placed on it, and the logs are slowly cycled and replaced to succeed.This is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient working people.After listening to the staff's introduction, looking at the Danbi stone carved with a lifelike dragon soaring pattern from the top to the top, Keli Bamo, who has more white hair than black hair, admires the ingenuity of the Chinese people very much, so he watched it carefully. This is a rare and unparalleled boulder in the world.

There are too many foreign dignitaries to visit the Forbidden City, and the overview can be seen just by listing the above.In addition to foreign top leaders visiting the Forbidden City, other invited foreigners also cherish visiting the Forbidden City as an important part of their trip to Beijing.At that time, Premier Zhou followed Chairman Mao's foreign policy and relied on his political influence and personality charm to actively carry out non-governmental diplomacy and achieved great success.The most obvious in this regard is the people-to-people diplomacy with Japan.Japan is a close neighbor of China, and the two countries have the same, interlinked, similar, similarities in the application of Chinese characters, Buddhist beliefs, architectural techniques, folk customs, and living habits.However, in modern history, especially in the Second World War, due to the repeated aggression and plundering of China by Japanese imperialism, the national feelings of the Chinese people were greatly hurt, and Sino-Japanese relations were in a confrontation for a long time. The people and Japanese people of insight still support the harmony and friendship between China and Japan.It is against this background that for decades, Premier Zhou has found a new way to develop relations with Japan and actively carried out non-governmental diplomacy with Japan.By the 1970s, groups of friendly people from Japan became the guests of Premier Zhou.For example, we often hear that Premier Zhou met with Japanese celebrities and friendly people such as Koichi Saizona, Yoshihiro Inayama, Daisaku Ikeda, Yoshikatsu Takeiri, Kenzo Nakajima, Nakasone, Toshio Kurihara, etc. Known as "civilian ambassadors".It can be said that at that time Premier Zhou met with Japanese friends the most.To give just one example: In 1971, there were more than 60 major Japanese groups visiting China, among which Premier Zhou met with more than 10 groups.Among these groups visiting China, Japan's Socialist Party and the Komeito Party occupy the mainstream.Premier Zhou really did his best to restore Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations.Under the great impetus of Premier Zhou's people-to-people diplomacy, Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and Foreign Minister Masaoyo Ohira visited China on September 25, 1972, and established diplomatic relations with China at the ambassadorial level during their visit.

After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, the governments and peoples of the two countries communicated more frequently, especially the non-governmental delegations from Japan gathered in China like mushrooms after rain.Among them are political delegations, cultural delegations, political party delegations, trade delegations, and economic delegations... Many of these delegations were received by Premier Zhou. Sino-Japanese friendship has played an important role.For example, intergovernmental trade and private trade, which Premier Zhou called walking on two legs, effectively promoted the development of trade between the two countries. The trade volume increased from US$900 million in 1971 to US$6.6 billion in 1979.Most of these delegations will visit the Forbidden City after completing their historical missions in Beijing.Due to the large number of them, most of them arrange accompanying guards when visiting the Forbidden City.

The frequent visits to China by Japanese delegations from all walks of life have also led to the formation of visiting groups or tourist groups from some prefectures and schools in Japan.Compared with the delegations from all walks of life in Japan, these groups are larger in scale and more in number.Some student delegations have hundreds or even nearly a thousand people.It can be called the most tourist in China.Most of these delegations were invited by Chinese friendly groups or departments towards Japan.Most of their visits are for tourism, but few government affairs activities, so visiting the Forbidden City is a must for every group.I participated in several security activities when Japanese student delegations visited the Forbidden City.They all took the big cars provided by the Chinese side, got off the car and lined up in a long line, wearing the same small hats.The Chinese tour guide held a small flag in front of them and shouted with a small trumpet, introducing every extraordinary building in the Forbidden City and the stories that have determined the historical destiny of China in the past hundreds of years.The youthful Japanese students listened carefully to the introduction, and sometimes wrote it down in their notebooks, showing a look of surprise from time to time.Between the introductions, they would chatter and express their emotions to each other, or compete to comment on every scenic spot in the Forbidden City.

The above narration is only the situation of people from Japan visiting the Forbidden City. One can imagine how many people from all over the world should visit the Forbidden City at that time.Sometimes in the Forbidden City, looking at groups of foreign visiting groups, watching the flow of people with different skin colors and looks, and listening to languages ​​with different pronunciations, it really feels like being in a foreign country. The Forbidden City has a history of six hundred years.After a long history of ups and downs and dynasties, the Forbidden City remains intact.In addition to the fact that the designer designed it to be high in the middle and low on all sides, and has two main functions of north-south drainage for waterproofing and inner Jinshui River for fire prevention, so that it can avoid fire and drain waterlogging, another major reason is that different times, especially New China, have constantly improved Repair and maintenance of the Forbidden City.The 38-meter-high Meridian Gate is the main gate of the Forbidden City. It was built during the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty.There must have been many such large-scale renovations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.After liberation, the Chinese government continued to invest in the repair of dilapidated city walls and destroyed houses. In the spring of 1956, my country carried out major repairs to the turret in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City.I remember that in 1972, I and my comrades participated in the voluntary labor of repairing the collapsed section of the west wall of the Forbidden City.At that time, I saw that the master workers were struggling to clean up the large pieces of bad bricks that were exposed but still stuck to them. I asked about it. At that time, the walls of the palace were built with eggs, rice soup and lime, so they were very strong. .Around 1973, the state also demolished and rebuilt the turret at the southwest corner of the Forbidden City. 9 beams, 18 columns and 72 ridges are the most complicated process of the turret, and the entire turret is connected by wooden tenons without a single nail.Therefore, the staff and experts were very cautious during the demolition, not only taking pictures and drawing pictures, but also sorting and numbering all the demolished wood.However, it still cannot be connected as it is during reconstruction, which shows the superb woodworking skills in ancient times. In the mid-1970s, my country renovated and painted the "Three Great Halls" of Taihe, Zhonghe, and Baohe, which had been eroded by wind and rain for a long time. Once again, the past glory of the three halls was continued.Since 2004, my country has invested another 2 billion yuan to repair all the Forbidden City in 19 years.This is a blessing that the Chinese people and the people of the world look forward to very much.May the Forbidden City, the prestigious imperial palace of the Chinese nation, always become a magnificent treasure for people all over the world to visit.