An Imperial Garden

A detail from within the Forbidden City. This is on one the palace inhabited by the Empress Dowager Cixi, famous for rising from the status of an ordinary concubine to the supreme ruler of China. Contrariwise, she is infamous for her ruthlessness and her corruption that weakened the Qing dynasty to the point of collapse. Her last words were: "Never again allow a woman to hold the supreme power in the state." Let that be a lesson to us all.