Going to the Qianmen 前门

Qianmen 前门 in Beijing

Qianmen 前门 in Beijing

From the massive gardens of the Yuanmingyuan Park, I made my way be to town using the subway. My destination this time was the Qianmen 前门 or Front Gate. It was only the previous year where I was visiting the great city of Beijing and I no doubt explored the famous spots such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. However, it seems that I didn’t really properly plan my visit that time as I was taking the subway and got off at the Tiananmen East station to enter the Forbidden City. Because of this, it turned out I missed some parts of the Forbidden City area.

Front View of the Qianmen 前门

Front View of the Qianmen 前门

The Tiananmen Gate is actually just the second gate in the Forbidden City. There was another one which I missed and it was aptly called the Qianmen or Front Gate. As the name implied this is the first gate of the Forbidden City. There was actually a subway station at nearby and it was very easy to get here. As one might expect, large areas of the place were fenced off for “security” and “traffic” purposes. However, it doesn’t obstruct the Qianmen and you can still have a look at it.

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