 It's more than 2,000 years old, but the Great Wall of China remains one of the great wonders of the world, an engineering feat rarely matched in the 22 centuries since its construction began. Stretching 4,500 miles, from the mountains of Korea to the Gobi Desert, it was first built to protect an ancient Chinese empire from marauding tribes from the north. But it evolved into something far greater ¡ª a boon to trade and prosperity and ultimately a symbol of Chinese ingenuity and will.
The truth is, though, that the Great Wall is actually a series of walls built and rebuilt by different dynasties over 1,000 years. And while they often served the same purpose, these walls reflected the worlds - both natural and cultural, in which they were erected. For all its seeming timelessness, the Great Wall is an emblem of China's evolution.
 Or called “Purple Gold Palace”, it is the best-kept and largest imperial dwelling in China.
The Forbidden City stands in the center of Beijing. It is protected by high walls and a moat on all four sides and consists of dozens of halls and courtyards. The emperors of two dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, lived here with their families and hundreds of court ladies and palace eunuchs. From their throne in the Forbidden City they governed the country by holding court meetings with their ministers, issuing imperial orders and initiating military expeditions.
The Forbidden City was completed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty. It had been the scene of many important events affecting the course of Chinese history, including political struggles and palace coups, some of them extremely tragic, until the last emperor was finally expelled by republican troops in 1924. The Forbidden City was renamed as the Palace Museum and opened to the general public.
 The Temple of Heaven is a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world's great civilizations. The symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries. For more than two thousand years China was ruled by a series of feudal dynasties, the legitimacy of which is symbolized by the design and layout of the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven, founded in the first half of the 15th century, is a dignified complex of fine cult buildings set in gardens and surrounded by historic pine woods. In its overall layout and that of its individual buildings, iit symbolizes the relationship between earth and heaven-the human world and God's world，which stands at the heart of Chinese cosmogony, and also the special role played by the emperors within that relationship.
 The Summer Palace is an excellent place to cool off during Beijing's hot Summer months. As it's name implies, Qing's Imperial rulers used it as a summer residence. The Palace began to assume its present shape during the reign of Emperor Qianlong who ruled in the late 18th century. Using an army of 100,000 laborers, the Emperor enlarged and deepened the lake, creating a network of small islands connected by dykes doubling as bridges. The layout is inspired by Taoist legends of immortal islands in the middle of misty lakes--the Chinese version of the Fountain of Youth myth.
The Dowager empress Cixi took an interest in the palace at the end of the 19th century. Using embezzled funds from the Imperial Navy, she restored a marble boat permanently moored at the lakeside, and rebuilt the halls beginning in 1888. Unfortunately, most of the complex was burned to the ground in an unwarranted display of foreign aggression by Anglo-French forces reacting to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
Nowadays most of the buildings have been completely restored, including a pleasant Southern Chinese shopping area at the north end of the palace, where once only the Emperors could shop.
 The Old Summer Palace lies in total ruin, blasted into fragments by the Anglo-French invasion force during the 1860 Opium War. The sprawling compound has an aura of faded glory like the Roman Forum. Its ruined pathways, gutted pavilions, and unruly vegetation fill the place with a "sublime" horror.
The palace was first surveyed in the 12th century and had been developed into a network of gardens by the time of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the late 18th century. Then at his request, Jesuit architects designed structures in a European baroque vocabulary, including the 10,000 Flowers Maze.
Containing the city's largest lake and a landmark white pagoda, this is the capital's oldest Imperial garden, with an 800-year history. It is the best single park to visit -- and a wonderful place to stroll--especially since it is within walking distance of the Forbidden City. The Round City (Tuan Cheng), located just outside the south entrance of the park, contains a massive jade bowl that was once the prized possession of Kublai Khan; the Light Receiving Hall within  houses a 10-foot Buddha of white jade sent to Emperor Qianlong as a gift from Burma. Today's commoners take to the waters in paddleboats and rowboats during the summer and on a type of ice sled (made up of crates on skis) in the winter. Beihai Lake was drained and cleaned and its shoreline renovated in the late fall of 1998, making it an even more beautiful spot to tour.
 Yonghe Lamasery is a Tibetan Buddhist temple in the heart of Beijing that was first built in 1694 as the residence of Prince Yong of the Qing dynasty. He lived here until 1723 when he became Emperor and moved to the Forbidden City. Tradition dictated that his former home could only be converted to a temple, which was renamed Yonghe temple after the Emperor's name Yong Zheng. As a former imperial residence, the green roof tiles in the compound were replaced with yellow ones.
The temple assumed an important role after the 1792 uprisings in Tibet, when Emperor Qianlong dictated that a gold vase be kept at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa and Yonghe temple in Beijing to determine the true reincarnations of the Dalai Lama and the Mongolian Grand Living Buddha, respectively.
The temple architecture is a combination of Tibetan, Mongolian, and native Chinese. The chief artistic attraction is an 18-meter tall wooden Buddha carved from a single sandalwood tree imported from Tibet, the largest wooden statue on earth.
 Ming Tombs are located at Chan Ping County, 31 miles northwest of Beijing.
Of the 16 emperors who ruled China during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), 13 are buried in elaborate complexes in the valley of the Ming Tombs north of Beijing. Tomb construction began here in 1409 and continued for 2 centuries. The valley was sealed off by a red gate at its only entrance, guards were posted to keep out the people, and no one, not even the emperor, could ride a horse on these grounds. The site of this huge cemetery was chosen by the same emperor, Yongle, who oversaw the construction of the Forbidden City. The tombs reflect a similar conception of Imperial architecture, consisting of walls, gates, courtyards, stairways, and elaborate pavilions with roofs of yellow tiles (yellow being the color of emperors). The actual burial chamber (a tumulus) is underground. The emperor, his wife, and his favored concubines were the only people buried there, along with enough royal treasure to stuff a small museum.
 Hutong, the unique street design to Beijing, was created to reflect the imperial ruling of the emperors from within the Forbidden City. One of the explanations of Hutong has it that "Hu" is the name Han people called the other small Chinese tribes and "Tong" means "same" or "together", so Hutong means a harmony of living together between different ethnic tribes in China. Hutongs are closely associated with individual four-sided courtyard in which people live. Most Hutongs are running east west for the local dwellers to procure the sunlight. When first started, around 700 years ago, Hutongs were built with the courtyards to the east and the west of Forbidden City to accommodate high-ranking officials and relatives of the emperors. Afterwards, more were added to the north and south for merchants and common people and these were of a lower standard with lower walls, less or no ornate wood, stone and brick works, and less space. The Hutongs and courtyards were the connection between the royal family and the outside world. The names for different Hutong are fascinating too; one is called Stinking Leather Hutong (reason can be that some merchants were once processing leather and became quite famous), and another is called Doufu Chen Hutong (reason can be that merchants were once making Doufu or bean curd here and became well-known). It is not only a kind of architecture, but also serves as a window into Beijing folk life and the "encyclopedia of the history and culture of Beijing."
 Prince Gong's estate is Beijing's best-preserved example of how the upper class lived during the Qing Dynasty. It consists of 31 pavilions, halls, and residential buildings, 9 courtyards, several arched bridges, large ponds with islands and swans, an immense rock garden in the classical style, and even its own private pagoda for gazing at the moon. Prince Gong's brother was China's emperor from 1851 to 1861 and Gong served as regent for the next emperor along with Cixi, who would become the Empress Dowager. Gong's son, Pu Yi, became China's last emperor. Prince Gong moved into this palace estate in 1852, but its design originated more than a century earlier. The mansion has its own stage for outdoor performances of Peking Opera, a teahouse open to hutong tour groups, and a Sichuan restaurant open to the public.
|
