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 | Beijing Off the Beaten Path | Tips 11 - 20 of 340 |  |
"Blue Zoo" is a small, but very well laid-out underground aquarium at the southern end of the Worker's Stadium complex.
The main feature is a huge marine tank, with a slow moving pedestrian walkway that goes through, round and back under this huge tank. It is a fascinating and exciting experience, and the kids absolutely love it. Strangely it inever seems to be crowded, but it is educational and makes a change from watching 'Shark Week' on Discovery Channel. Leave a Comment
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 | |  |  | Beijing's Parks: Beijing Botanical Gardens | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
Close to the Summer Palace and Fragrant Hills is another well-kept Beijing secret - ther Botanical Gardens.
During SARS, parks and gardens were about the only places you could go, and this very special park has remained a favourite for our family.
China builds botanical gardens better than anything else, and the one in beijing is no exception. It is not a natural landscape, but the park is surrounded by the Western Hills and the park landscaping complements them.
Children can run free in huge expanses of meadow, can fish for tadpoles in spring and feed big fat lazy carp all year round.
Little glades, gardens and gasshouses show off the Chinese talent for making plants grow.
If you like gardens, you will not be disappointed, if you want a bit of space to leap around, then you will also enjoy this great big Beijing lung.
Fresh air, peace, a picnic, snoozing in the sunshine. Love it! Leave a Comment
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| | | | Beijing's Parks: Zongshan Park | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Just metres away from the crowds of Tiananmen Square lies the spacious tranquility of one of Beijing's best kept secrets, Zongshan Park.
Originally the site of an early temple, then the Temple of Earth and Grain in the Qing Dynasty, the park is best known by Beijing people for the small museum commemorating Dr Sun Yat-Sen, the father of Chinese democracy.
He was born in 1866 and died in 1925, and only visited the northern capital three times, but a special place is reserved in Chinese hearts for this thoughtful and passionate man. The simple museum (entrance RMB2) is held in the former emperor's hall (from where the emperors could oversee the religious rituals if the weather was bad). The basic outline of Sun Yat-Sen's life is explained in English panels, and the intelligent visitor will also be able to link some of the photographs (captioned only in Chinese) with the events mentioned. Note especially the autopsy report (in English). The wooden building itself is beautifully austere and a superb example of classic Chinese architecture, and dates from 1421.
The park is much larger than it looks on the map, and is divided into many different areas. The ancient cypress trees are a legacy from the earlier days as a temple, and in the north-east corner of the 'front garden' note where a scholar tree has grown up right through a cypress tree.
Other small gardens are well landscaped, and there are many pavilions, including one little octagonal one, where junior court officials would practice the elaborate and complicated court rituals.
You can get away from the Beijing crowds for hours or even a whole day in this rather special, secluded park. Leave a Comment
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| | | | Markets: Bird and Insect Market. | Tip Rating: | | | | |
The Bird and Insect Market was very interesting. There are many other animals on sale here too. Ones that I have never seen except in zoos! There is also a cricket area, with heaps of bamboo cages and crickets chirping loud enough to deafen you!
There were land tortises walking around, big Iguanas and other lizards, a BOA Constrictor!!, green snakes, little red snakes, strange crabs, strange large snails, squirrels, a Tarantula!!, among the normal animals , there were many aquarium fish, frogs, chicks and ducklings, piglet, hamsters, and rabbits.
I was fascinated by the market. If you like animals and seeing strange animals, you should visit. If you are an animal-rights activist, maybe you should give it a miss...
Chinese name: Guanyuan Shichang.
How to get there: Fucheng Men Metro Stop. (exit B). along the east side of the 2nd ring road (Xicheng).
Open: 8:30am-6:30pm. Leave a Comment
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| | | | Museums: Beijing Museum of Natural History | Tip Rating: | | | | |
This museum is very interesting, if you want to see enormous scelletons of dinosaurus and other animals from millions of years ago. It also houses an exhibition about Beijing man and evolution. In another floor there a thousands of jars with animals and other .
It is located on Yongdingmen Street not far from the Temple of Heaven.
Further Information:
Address: No. 126 Tianqiao South Street, Beijing.
Tel: 010-67024431 E-mail: bnhm@public3.bta.net.cn
Opening Time: Opening in the entire year without the resting day (8:30 to 17:00 everyday, stop selling the ticket after 16:00).
Bus Route: Bus Nos. 102, 105, 110, 120, 54, 20, 17, 2, 6, 25, 45 and 59, get off at Tianqiao Station.
Admission: 15 yuan (US$1.8) for adult; 10 yuan (US$1.2) for children no higher than 1.2 meters Leave a Comment Phone: 010-67024431Website: www.bnhm.cn
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