There are dozens of must see sights in China. With our limited time, we had to pare that down to the sights in Beijing. Of those, the biggies are 1) the Olympic stadium, 2) the Forbidden City and 3) Tiananmen Square.
There are plenty of others like Ming city wall ruins, Lama Temple, Temple of Heaven, the summer Palace, Beijing Zoo, the new National Center for Performing Arts and the list goes on. We saw them all. However, I'd like to get to sleep sometime tonight and you probably would too.
China is a country with a population of 1.3 billion. That's down by 100 million from 20 years ago mainly due to their One Child law. By law Chinese couples may have only one child. If they exceed that number they must pay a fine of 50,000 Yuan (over $7,000) and the average annual income is about $6,000. This comes at a time when the world has just been exposed to China and China has just been exposed to the rest of the world via the 2008 Olympic Games.
The Olympics brought people from all over the globe to see the progress Beijing has made in bringing the Bird's Nest city and country out of its feudal state into the 21st century. The planning, architecture and engineering that went into the two most publicized venues during last summer's games is mind boggling. The Water Cube is unbelievable and so is the outdoor games site, the Bird's Nest.
Both are engineering marvels with innovative structural approaches and exterior & interior visual treatments. The package is rounded out with the Olympic Village, temporary home to all those athletes and the communications buildings and retro park that reflects China's 4,000 year history.
Just across the street is the Dragon Building that at one end has the dragon's head stylized to look like the Olympic torch and at the far end is the dragon's tail. I think I failed to mention that the dragon is very important in Chinese culture and mythology and is both a symbol of the emperor, it is also a symbol of good luck. The building is primarily an office building and its upper floors include one of only three 7-star hotels in the world. It's the tallest building in the capital city.
The Forbidden City was so called because no one was allowed to enter for Gate of Heavenly Peace It's hard to miss Mao's portrait on the wall.over 500 years unless summoned by the emperor. It was built during the early Ming dynasty and was home to the emperor and his family. The emperor seldom left the palace unless it was absolutely necessary.
The Forbidden City was constructed during the Ming Dynasty and continued in use through the Qing Dynasty and ended with the last emperor.
All the important buildings in Beijing are constructed on the Dragon Line. This is an imaginary line running due north and south starting with the Temple of Heaven, running north through Tiananmen Square, north through the Forbidden City (particularly the Temples, Meeting Halls and Emperor's Places), and north to the Drum Tower and Bell Tower. Since the building of the Olympic Stadia, the Dragon Line has been extended north from the Towers to the promenade that bisects the sites and is the major division between the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest.
The Forbidden City if first entered from the south through the Gate of Heavenly Peace through the Meridian Gate, which is a massive portal that in former times was reserved for the use of the emperor. The Meridian Gate was in disrepair and was restored the Hall of Supreme Harmony viewed from the Supreme Harmony Gatein the 17th century.
From there the emperor's subject who had been summoned would cross the Golden Stream, which is shaped to resemble a Tartar bow and is spanned by five marble brides to the Supreme Harmony Gate. Through the gate is a huge courtyard that could hold an imperial audience of up to 100,000 people.
Raised on a marble terrace with balustrades are the Three Great Halls, the heart of the Forbidden City. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the most important and the largest structure in the Forbidden City. Built in the 15th century, and restored in the 17th century, it was used for ceremonial occasions, such as the emperor's birthday, the nomination of military leaders and coronations.
Inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony is a richly decorated Dragon Throne where the emperor would preside over his trembling officials.
The emperor's residence was located north of the Three Great Halls and farthest away from the officials who would be allowed into the Forbidden City. There the emperor lived with his dozens of wives and hundreds of concubines. Rarely if ever did they venture outside the walls.
Directly south of the Forbidden City, across Tiananmen Square That's the Great Hall of the People (parliment building) in the background.the subway line and expressway (although I doubt it was an expressway during imperial times) lies Tiananmen Square. Chairman Mao enhanced and enlarged the square to become the largest city central plaza in the world. He wanted to demonstrate the vastness of communism. Reportedly, Tiananmen Square has held rallies that include one million people.
Tiananmen Square is ringed by the Gate of Heavenly Peace to the north with its huge portrait of Mao and the southern entrance to the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People (or parliament building) to the west, and Mao's mausoleum to the south. It also includes the imposing sculpture, Monument to the People's Heroes.
On the subject of Chairman Mao - he is no longer held in such high regard as he once was. At the height of his popularity he was thought to be approaching deity status. As the country gained more and more vision of the outside world, wthey began to question his teachings and today, while the only party is the Communist Party, he's regarded as having been "70% right and 30% wrong" as the semi-official line. Most people we encountered ventured that it was probably 70/30 indeed but more likely the other way around.
In any event, his mummified remains are on display in a glass coffin in his mausoleum at the south end of Tiananmen Square. The mausoleum is under renovation, so we didn't get to see pickled Mao, just as we missed seeing the similarly preserved Lenin's remains while we were in Moscow.
We left Beijing on an overnight sleeper train bound for Guangzhou (Canton) and our flight the next day for our next adventure, Manila, Philippines.
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