I visited Forbidden City when I was six, in 1986. I marveled at the architecture. We walked on marble stairs and entered a room paved with wooden floor. I approached a bed and stood beside a bed. The bed was low and made of fine wood. On the bed placed several quilts, neatly folded and made of fine silk. The quilts were in bold colors, and embroidered with vivid patterns. A pillow was placed on the bed. Soft curtains drifted in midair. For a while, I widened my eyes and I believed a beauty had been living in the room. Each morning she got up and the servants would fold her quilts. She might trace her eyebrows by the window. Then she would dress up and face the emperor. How would she face the emperor? Would she be afraid? When I was six, I did not realize that she might not have chance to meet the emperor, but wait for days and years in loneliness in her chamber. I just stood beside the bed. For a moment, I felt as if I was in another time-space, having traveled through time and reached Qing Dynasty.
I left the room in a hurry, and I did not look around. Probably there was a vase on a cabinet.
Nowadays, probably because of theft or other problems, the Imperial Palace has closed most of the rooms for exhibition. The tourists are not allowed to enter the rooms directly and approach the bed of a princess.
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