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Famous sights in Beijing
The Great Wall
The Great Wall was built on the mountains in the northwest suburb of Beijing with an elevation of over 1000 meters. It has a history of over 2000 years. The Great Wall we see today is the result of renovation some 500 years ago. It has been estimated that if all the stones on the Great Wall are used to build a wall of one meter in width and five meters in height, the wall can circle around the equator for one lap. For tourists from other parts of China, there is a popular saying, "you are not a true man without visiting the Great Wall".
The Temple of Heaven
It is situated at the southeastern part of Beijing. Built in 1420, it was a place where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties worshiped heaven and prayed for good harvests. There are two parts, one inside and one outside. The main buildings are inside where you can choose to visit the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Echo Wall and the Circular Mound Altar.
The 38-meter-high Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is the typical building of the Temple of Heaven. Its roof was built with blue glazed tiles, which symbolizes the blue sky.
The Echo Wall is a round wall along which a mere whisper can be heard clearly at the other hand. This phenomenon is an application of the acoustics theory. In front of the steps leading down from the hall is the Triple-Sound Stones. If you stand on the first stone and clap your hands, the sound will be echoed once. On the second stone, the sound will be heard twice. So what about on the third stone? You can find out at the place.
The Circular Mound Altar is a three-terraced stone plot in the open air. The numbers of the stones used in the paved slabs on its surface, steps and the balustrades are all multiples of 9. There was a legend in China saying that the Heaven had nine floors and the ninth floor was the place where the Heavenly Emperor lived. If you are interested in it, you may count by yourself.
The Palace Museum
Known as the Forbidden City, it was the imperial palace located at the central part of Beijing. The construction of this palace started in 1407 and it took 14 years to complete. Rectangular in shape, it covers an area of 720,000 square meters. It is said in a folk legend that there were 9999.5 rooms in the palace, only a half room fewer than those owned by the Heavenly Emperor. The Forbidden City is the largest and the best-preserved complex extant in the world today and was listed one of the World Heritages by the UNESCO.
Hall of Supreme Harmony is the palace for the emperor to hold ceremonies which marked great occasions. It is the biggest wood structure palace in China. In the middle is the throne, a symbol of imperial power.
Palaces of Heavenly Purity and Earthly Tranquility are the palaces where the Emperor and the Empress lived. In Chinese, "qian" stands for male and "kun" for female.
Treasure Halls-place for treasures.
ImperialGarden (1.2 square kilometers) has more than 20 buildings of different styles and various trees and plants. "Yu" means the Emperor only.
Tian'anmen
The gallant Tian'anmen is located in the center of Beijing. It stands in front of the PalaceMuseum, and faces the magnificent Tian'anmen Square. Tian'anmen Square is the largest square in the world.
Tian'anmen Square was built in Yongle 15th year of Ming dynasty (A.D 1417). It was originally named Chengtianmen, and was renamed Tian'anmen when it was rebuilt in Shunzhi 8th year of Qing dynasty. Tian'anmen was the frontispiece of the imperial city.
The Summer Palace
It used to be the resort and garden of the emperor. It is located in the northwestern suburb of Beijing, 10 miles away from the city proper. It was destroyed by the foreign invaders in 1860 and was rebuilt in 1888. Covering an area of 290 hectares, it has a large number of buildings. It would take you more than three days to visit them all, so it is recommended that you choose spots selectively.
The Tower of Buddha Incense-the highest building located at the core of the SummerPalace. 41 meters high, it has countless Buddha figurines on the surface of the building. If you climb to top of the Tower of Buddha Incense, you can get a whole picture of the SummerPalace.
Long Corridor-728 meters long with 273 sections. It has been recorded in the Guinness World Records as the world's longest corridor. Every horizontal pillar has color paintings, expressing artistically the classic stories and poems popular in China. You can test your knowledge of the Chinese culture by choosing one of the paintings as a topic.
Arc Bridge-150 meters with seventeen arcs.
Marble Boat is made of stones with a foreign style of superstructure
West Dam was built modeling Su Dam of the WestLake in Hangzhou. If you plan to visit Hangzhou after the meeting, we suggest you visit it so that you can have a comparison. If you do not plan to visit, we suggest you visit it too since seeing the West Dam is comparable to a visit to Hangzhou
The Yonghegong Lamasery
The Yonghegong Lamasery was built in Kangxi 33rd year of Qing Dynasty (A.D 1694) to be the palatial residence of Emperor Yongzheng before he succeeded to the throne. In Qianlong 9th year (A.D 1744), it was converted to a lamasery.
The Yonghegong Lamasery mainly consists of three exquisite memorial arches and five magnificent audience halls. The whole building covers 66,400 sq. meters, integrating the characterristics of ethnic groups as Han, Man, Mongolia and Zang, which shows that the brilliant Chinese culture was created by the people of all ethnic groups together. The Buddha in the lamasery is named Maitreya, which was carved from a 26 meter-long, 8 meter-diametric sandalwood tree. This a-thousand-year old tree was found by the people sent by the Seventh Dalai Lama and was carried to Beijing by manpower through great difficulty. It is interesting that the modern subway of loop line just passes under the temple. The exit in the north wall, which seems like the gate of the temple, is just the exit of subway station
Beijing Zoo
Occupying 865,000 sq. meters, Beijing Zoo is the largest zoo in China and is a garden combining the beauty of garden and natural scenery.
The zoo used to be an imperial garden at Ming dynasty, a private garden of imperial lineage in the early Qing dynasty and an agricultural experimentation base in the late Qing dynasty with about 200 animals imported from Germany for entertainment. The zoo was finally named as Beijing Zoo in 1954.
Covering a construction area of about 70,000 sq. meters, it consists of more than 30 multi-functional or large animal houses and enclosures. Among more than 3,500 animals from over 500 species, panda and golden-haired monkey are of the most precious. There are also animals representative of all parts of the world
The Temple of Confucius
In Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasty, the Temple of Confucius was used to worship Confucius. The temple was built in 1302 and was reconstructed in Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1904, the thirtieth year of Emperor GuangXu, the worship of Confucius was further emphasized, thus the major hall underwent extensive restoration. In front of the temple stand one colored-glaze wall and one dismounting stele. "Officers must dismount here" was engraved by 6 different languages including Manchu and Chinese on both sides of the stele.
Inside the hall are arranged 198 stone tablets bearing the names of the Advanced Scholars of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties who passed the triennial imperial examinations. To the north of the gate was the main hall - Hall of Great Accomplishment with Confucius' memorial tablet, where the emperors of Yuan, Ming and Qing worshipped Confucius. The hall is about 16.4 meters in width and 5 meters in length. On the west and east sides of the main hall stand the side-halls where 72 disciples of Master Confucius were worshiped. The Worship Hall at the back of the main hall was used to worship Confucius's ancestors.
---- From ChinaGreen.com
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