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 | Beijing Things To Do | Tips 11 - 20 of 2447 |  |
 | |  |  | Summer Palace: The Summer Palace - The Hall of Dispersing Clouds | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
Rising up from the lake, halfway along the lakefront is a series of buildings stepping up the hillside to the Sea of Wisdom Temple, and is really a separate palace complex, entered, from he lake, by a ceremonial archway. Contrary to some descriptions, the archway does not have a specific name. On the lakeside is inscribed the phrase "Gorgeous Clouds and Jade Eaves" and on the land side "Stars Surrounding the Jade Centre". Behind it is the main entrance hallway, the Paiyunmen, or Gate that Dispels the Clouds, opening onto a small courtyard with a pool. It is vaguely reminiscent of the entrance to the Forbidden City, with an imperial marble bridge crossing the pool. Then behind the pool are steps leading up to the Longevity Gate. At the back of the terrace is the Paiyundian, the Hall that Dispels the Clouds, where Cixi would conduct much of her work on just a single day of the year - her birthday. For the rest of the year, this 21-bay spectacular, lavishly furnished building was closed. Many of the gifts bestowed on the emperors and on Cixi, were presented here, while the ruler was seated on the Nine-Dragon Throne. At the end of her long, tiring birthday, she would hold banquets for her ever-faithful eunuch officials in the Fanghui hall and Zixiao hall either side of the main hall. Otherwise, these two building also lay dormant for 364 days each year. Leave a Comment Address: Yiheyuan Lu, Northwest BeijingWebsite: http://www.summerpalace-china.com
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| | | | Beihai Park: Tuancheng: The Round City - Part 1 | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Tacked on to the southern end of Beihai Park is a curious little place, missed by many as they rush in to the park and across the bridge to the island.
To the left of the entrance is the Round City, once an island, now solidly ashore, hugging the hard shoulder of the roadway outside. The cars, buses and trolley-buses and trucks rumble past one of Beijing's oldest sites, but inside the 5 metre high walls is a small compound apart from the rush of modern-day Beijing.
In true Beijing style, the history of the place is rich and complicated. While building the Daning Palace, between 1163 and 1179, the Jin emperor Shi Zong enlarged and excavated the lake to create the Qiongdao Island (on which the White Dagoba sits). Actually, strctly speaking he just enlarged an existing island - Yaoxudao.
It seems that the emperor hung up a picture of the Gengyue Garden, the imperial garden of the Song dynasty in Kaifeng, saying "This is what I want the place to look like!".
The Guanghan Palace (Palace of the Moon) was a key building in the Daning Palace.
When Kublai Khan captured the city of Zhingdu (as Beijing was then known, legend has it that Kublai Khan shot an arrow to the east of the hall and where it landed was chosen as the site for his new palace.
Later Kublai Khan a big hall here - Yitiandian - The Hall for Celestial Ceremonies and put up the huge retaining wall.
In those days, the Round City was an island. Kublai Khan's palace was across a bridge to the east and the palaces of the Crown Princes and the Empress Dowager across a drawbridge to the West. Tuancheng was linked to Qiongdao by a huge stone bridge.
In 1417, Ming emperor Cheng Zu repaired the delapidated Yitiandian and renamed it Chengguangdian - The Hall for Inviting the Light.
It was at that time that the lake immediately to the east was filled in again, so the Round City was no longer an island. Leave a Comment Address: Jingshan QianjieDirections: At south end of Beihai Park, just west of the north end of the Forbidden City.
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| | | | Yuanmingyuan: The Old Summer Palace - Part 2 | Tip Rating: | | | | |
(continued from Part 1)
The British and French troops destroyed the complex, looting and burning the place, leaving the ruined parkland much as it can be seen now.
There is frequent talk of restoring the buildings, but to what end remains a mystery; the vast parklands are a favourite of nearby university students and staff of Beida and form one of Beijing's largest green spaces.
The Yuanming Yuan is really four distinct gardens, almost in the shape of a letter 'T'. The 10,000 Springs Garden has become a huge children's playground, with stalls, cafes, play areas, boating lakes, and small, cheap funfairs, rusting and clanky. North, from west to east are the Perfection and Brightness Gardens, the area around Blessing Lake, and then the most famous part, with the most spectacular ruins, the Eternal Spring Gardens.
Water is an everpresent feature of the Old Summer Palace, and you cannot walk far before you find another creek, lake or canal, winding around pavilions, mounds, forested glades and great swathes of grassland. Leave a Comment Address: Qinghua Lu
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| | | | Forbidden City: Forbidden City | Tip Rating: | | | | |
The Forbidden City is also known as the Palace Museum. It is the largest palace in the world and was built in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1406-1420) Construction of the palace took approximately 14 years to build. A total of 24 emperors were enthroned here. There are a total of 9,999 rooms ( the number 9 was always used by the emperor, because it was considered the highest single- digit odd number.) There are also 9 nails in each door, horizontally and vertically. The color red signifies happiness, yellow signifies earth, which can be seen throughout the city for it was most extensively used by the emperors, who were regarded as the supreme rulers of humanity. Black, which signifies water was used on the library in hopes that it would protect the many books contained within from fire. Within the city walls lived a total of 3000 people, consisting of eunichs, servants, concubines, the emperor, and empress. The tatal area of the Forbidden City is equivalent to 180 acres. After 1911, there was no emperor. The last known emperor resided in the inner quarters of the palace for an additional 30 years until he was thrown out and the palace was opened up as a museum in 1925. Leave a Comment Address: North of Tiananmen SquareDirections: In the Center of BeijingWebsite: http://www.dpm.org.cn/
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| | | | Yuanmingyuan: The Old Summer Palace - Part 1 | Tip Rating: | | | | |
The Yuanming Yuan is a curious place, spread across a huge area on the north-western outskirts of Beijing. Even more curiously, its charms seem most alluring during the winter months, when the stark bare branches of the trees and shrubs seem to match the shattered stumps of old buildings and temples.
It was originally built in the 12th Century as a secondary complex with more open space for the Emperor and his court than at the more closeted Imperial City downtown. However, it was Emperor Qianlong, who sculpted the gardens into the shape you can see now. He loved classical Chinese gardens, and was always travelling down to Suzhou and Hangzhou to visit the great gardens there. The Yuanming Yuan was altered to reflect the design elements of these southern gardend. Ever the romantic, Qianlong wanted forty scenic beauty spots created, and he composed a poem for each one of them (rather like the special ten views in Hangzhou). It would be nice to know more about these forty spots, but staff at the park know little about them.He then commissioned the Jesuit architect Guiseppe Castiglione, later to become extremely influential with the emperor, to construct European-style buildings in a small area in the north-east of the gardens betwen 1747 and 1759. The buildings had European furniture and every detail was considered, and imported from far away to the West. Elaborate fountains were constructed to amuse the royal entourage, and there are even several mazes. Perhaps the most elaborate structure was the water clock, which, using the Chinese astronomical clock principles, spouted water from the mouth of a different animal for two hours, so signifying the time. Then in 1860, furious with the Chinese for having the temerity to expel foreign forces from its soil, Lord Elgin ordered the destruction of the Yuanming Yuan. The emperor and his concubine Cixi, later to become the supreme ruler of China, escaped shortly before the troops arrived. Leave a Comment Address: Qinghua LuDirections: North-west Beijing, near Peking University
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