If one were observant while visiting the Forbidden City, he/she would have realised that there were a lack of smaller-sized items that should normally come with such magnificent structures. Perhaps the museum administration has kept them in safe hands. I recalled several years ago during a visit to "another" Gu Gong Museum (yes, same name) in Taipei, the tour guide once said the museum contains the smaller-sized items from the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Nationalists probably salvaged these just before they left Beijing.

I suppose, it was simply a case of two different ideologies.

By 3pm, our legs were aching from all that walking though we started walking at 8am in the morning. The loud hailers from the local tour guides were at FULL volume whenever we were at the main halls (e.g. Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Middle Harmony, Hall of Preserving Harmony). During one of the pit stops, we overheard from some other tour groups (just to clarify we were on independent travel, not a commercial tour group) that if one would spent a hardcore day (i.e. 8 hours) walking around the palace, he/she would have completed 1% of the palace. In order to explore every corner of the palace (assuming every inch was opened), it will REQUIRE a whole 3 months! *Shivers*

The museum stops admission at 4pm (i.e. tickets are not sold after this time). Mum and me strolled past the Wu Gate slowly at 430pm. Feeling tired, but nevertheless richer in our experiences.