On the day we toured the Forbidden City, I woke up around 7:00 a.m. without any prompting; something I haven’t done in about twelve years. We headed out and reached the city in about twenty minutes. It was amazing to see how intricate even the tiniest piece of it was despite its size.

The Forbidden City

After about an hour, my fellow travelers and I found an area on the eastern side, which cost an extra admission fee of about one dollar. This was the best dollar we spent in China. The main section had been too crowded to completely enjoy the city. As soon as we walked in, we noticed that it was almost entirely empty.

In addition to it being less crowded, the eastern section was also home to some of the better rock gardens and the opera house (a four story building, filled with trap doors and interesting stage setups).

After leaving the Forbidden City, we headed across the street to a pagoda situated on top of a huge hill.

Once we reached the top, we had an amazing 360-degree view of Beijing. I looked all around, trying to pinpoint downtown, only to realize that the skyscrapers stretched out equally in all directions. It was at this point that I realized just how enormous Beijing truly was. I had never seen a city with such an immense sprawl. It reminded me of Los Angeles, except that the entirety of the city was full of skyscrapers, and had almost no areas with low buildings.

Brendan Morrell is traveling to China as part of the Foundation for Asia Pacific Education program.