Summer Palace - Beijing, China

The Summer Palace is located within the Haidian District, northwest of Beijing. It is the best preserved imperial garden in the world and the largest of its kind that still in existence in China today. It is mainly composed of the Longevity Hill and the Kunming Lake. The huge garden boasts about 3,000 garden architecture and is broken into three zones: office zone, living quarters and sightseeing area.

The Summer Palace occupies a total area of more than 290 hectares. The Longevity Hill covers one fourth of the total area while the Kunming Lake covers the rest three quarters. The beautiful former imperial garden is set off by a multitude of highly decorated buildings, halls, pavilions, bridges, towers, pagodas, isles, and courtyards. The harmonious layout of the garden is a Chinese architectural masterpiece that combines both the gorgeous landscape and the treasure of the traditional Chinese gardening art. More info at Wikipedia.







The famous Marble Boat (the largest marble boat in the world) on the grounds of the Summer Palace. It was first erected in 1755 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. The original pavilion was made from a base of large stone blocks which supported a wooden superstructure done in a traditional Chinese design.



The Long Corridor (Chinese: 长廊; pinyin: Cháng Láng) is a covered walkway in the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. First erected in the middle of the 18th century, it is famous for its length (728 meter) in conjunction with its rich painted decoration (more than 14,000 paintings).

Video clip of the long corridor.

Standing atop the Longevity Hill, the Tower of Buddhist Incense is the highest building in the Summer Palace.

Panoramic view video clip.

Temple of Heaven - Beijing, China

The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile tourist place in Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the Summer Palace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As Chinese emperors called themselves 'The Son of Heaven' ,they dared not to build their own dwelling,'Forbidden City' bigger than a dwelling for Heaven.

The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of 'The heaven is round and the earth is square' (For more history: TravelChinaGuide.com).





Despite the frigid cold weather during this tour, there were still many people wandering the paths of the Temple of Heaven.



The Circular Altar has three layered terraces with white marble. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368 A.D. - 1911 A.D.), the emperors would offer sacrifice to Heaven on the day of the Winter Solstice every year. This ceremony was to thank Heaven and hope everything would be good in the future. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is a big palace with round roof and three layers of eaves (TravelChinaGuide.com).







There were way too many people gathered around a very small doorway, everyone was pushing and shoving to try and take a look instead and snap a picture. Krista managed to wiggle her way through and get at two pictures. Look closely, do you see the pigs?





Wooden model exterior.



Wooden model interior.



There were many religious ceremonies going on during the Chinese Lunar New Year. These Beijinger's were playing various games while enjoying the serenity and surroundings of the Temple of Heaven.



The Seven-Star Stone Group, east of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, represents the seven peaks of Taishan Mountain, a place of Heaven worship in classical China. There is a sign that clearly states to keep off the rocks, you would think the gated area was enough to keep people out.. but no. There were young boys climbing on top of the rocks while their mothers just stood and watched.





Here is a panoramic video clip of the upper level.

Forbidden City, Beijing China

The magnificent Forbidden City was called so because it was off limits to commoners for 500 years. Most of the palace was trashed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, however, it still remains China's largest and best preserved cluster of ancient buildings. It sheltered two dynasties - the Ming and Qing who did not stray from the city unless they absolutely had to, which made it an elitist community. A stultifying code of rules, protocol and superstition depended its other worldliness, from here the emperors governed China until 1911.

The wall enclosing the city was assembled from 12 million bricks. Most of the buildings are made of wood and for fear of fire, there are large bronze pots filled with water in case of an emergency. The City is 1 million square meters, there are over 800 buildings and over 9000 rooms; less than half the City is open to visitors.

For more information: TravelGuideChina and Wikipedia.

This is the Tienanmen, which means Gate of Heavenly Peace. Tienanmen Square was across the street. On either side of the picture of Mao Zedong, it the poetic slogan: Long live the People's Republic of China and on the right, Long live the unities of the people of the world.









It was freeeeezing outside! Peddlers were trying to sell hats and gloves to tourists who were unprepared.





As there are so many buildings, there is always construction going on. When one area is complete, they move to the next. By the time the 10 year circle is complete they start renovating all over again.



When it rained, these stone statues would have water pouring out.



You could differentiate the importance of each building by counting the number of animals in the corner. At the front sits a man on top of a chicken (this is not included). As you can see, this building has a total of 9 signifying high importance. This building was reserved for the emperor.

















These are the bronze pots filled with water in case of fire.









In the Imperial Garden the Emperor and his favorite concubines (he had 1000 concubines!) played hide and go seek.