Icons of Beijing

Whilst in Beijing we did manage to visit pretty much all of the main touristy icons. In no particular order :

The Forbidden City
One word describes the Forbidden City - huge ! The astonishing Forbidden City really is a city within a city, and so called because it was off limits to commoners for 500 years. To Chinese communists it is a contradictory symbol - on the one hand it is a politically incorrect leftover from the pre Revolutionary dark ages; on the other hand it represents the very pinnacle of Chinese civiliation. It's therefore not very surprising that violent forces during the Cultural Revolution wanted to trash the place. Lucky for us 21st century tourists Premier Zhou Enlai stepped in to calm down the Red Guards and it was preserved.

As large as it may seem, there is still less than half (430,000 sq metres) of the palace actually open to the public. Ringed by a picturesque 52m wide moat that freezes over in winter, the rectangular palace is laid out roughly symmetrically on a north-south axis, bisected by a line of grand gates and ceremonial halls. In total the palace is a whopping 1 million sq metres, housing 800 buildings and 9,000 rooms!
























Peking duck
According to the Lonely Planet you would have to be "quackers" to leave Beijing without trying Peking duck, that most iconic of Beijing's dishes. This royal dish dating as far back as the Yuan Dynasty was off limits to "ordinary" people up until 1911, when imperial rule came to an end and former palace cooks set up roast duck restaurants around Beijing!

Chefs go through a lengthy process to prepare the ducks, which are reared on special farms outside Beijing. First the birds are inflated by blowing air between the skin and body; next the skin is pricked and boiling water is poured all over the bird; the skin is then sometimes rubbed with malt sugar to give it an amber colour before being hung up to air dry and then roasted in the oven. Once roasted, the flesh becomes crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside - yum! To eat the bird is meticulously cut into slices and served with fermented bean paste, mini pancakes, sliced cucumbers and green onions. I must admit that even though the whole experience of eating Peking duck in its hometown was fun it still didn't beat the Peking duck I had eaten before in Melbourne!




















Tiananmen Square
Probably one of THE most enduring images of the last century was that of the lone student protestor facing up to the tanks on Tiananmen Square during the democracy protests of 1989. The protests resulted in the massacre of hundreds (some 400-800) of Chinese protesters in the streets to the west of the square, and it was a bit eery to walk on the ground where not so long ago such dramatic events had taken place.

The square actually began life as a gate! The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415, with the square itself designed and built in 1651. It has since been enlarged 4 times to reach its current expanse, big enough to accommodate 600,000 people! The year after Mao's death in 1976 a mausoleum was built on the main north-south axis of the square. Along the west side of the square is the imposing grey concrete Great Hall of the People, and the square today remains heavily monitored by uniformed police and soldiers.




















Summer Palace
One of the most beautiful parks we saw whilst in Beijing was that of the Summer Palace. This splendid regal encampment, in the northwest of town, is a must-see sight. Once the playground for the imperial court fleeing the insufferable summer heat of the Forbidden City, the palace grounds, its temples, gardens, pavilions, lakes, bridges, gate towers, and corridors are a marvel of imperial landscaping. It really is way to big to fully experience in a day, let alone the half day that we spent there, but we did manage to get a good impression of its magnificence!

Three quarters of the park is water, with Kunming Lake the feature. Along the lake's northern shore stretches the Long Corridor. Literally a 728m long covered walkway beautifully trimmed with more than 14,000 traditional paintings. Other highlights were the marble boat commissioned by the notorious Empress Dowager Cixi, and the Buddhist Temple of the Sea of Wisdom perched atop the steep Hill of Longevity and towering over the gardens below.























Temple of Heaven
This is actually a complex of Taoist buildings in the southeastern part of the city and dates back to the reign of the Yongle Emperor (1406-1420), the same Emperor responsible for building the Forbidden City. During the Second Opium War the temple was occupied by the Anglo-French Alliance, and in 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, the Eight Nation Alliance (Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the USA) took up residence and turned the temple into the force's temporary command post in Beijing.

The Temple of Heaven was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and was described as "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..." Sounds fancy! The design of the temple itself is also significant - a round temple hall built on a sqaure base, with earth represented by the square and heaven by the circle. All the buildings within the complex also have special dark blue roof tiles, also representing heaven; and the "Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests" has four inner, twelve middle and twelve outer pillars, representing the four seasons, twelve months and twelve traditional Chinese hours respectively. Combined together, the twelve middle and twelve outer pillars represent the traditional solar term.

Beihai Park/White Dagoba
Built in the 10th century, Beihai Park is one of the largest imperial gardens in all of China. It contains numerous historically important structures, palaces and temples and has been open to the public since 1925. The park covers an area of 68 hectares and at its central point is a huge lake surrounded by bars and cafes where you can sip a beer and watch the tourists paddle by on small boats for hire. Apparently the site was once the playground of Kublai Khan, but today there is little remaining evidence of the Khan's court apart from one large jar made of green jade.

Dominating the Jade Islet in the middle of the lake is the 36m high White Dagoba, which was originally built in 1651 for a visit by the Dalai Lama. After walking through a small bamboo grove and up quite a steep flight of steps to the top of the Dagoba you are rewarded with views out over the park.






















Jingshan Park
Within walking distance of our hotel, Jingshan Park (literally meaning Prospect Hill) was bustling with activity on the morning we visited. Built on an artificial hill just north of the Forbidden City the park provides some good lookout points over the city (at least it would if you could see anything through the smog!). The artificial hill was constructed totally from soil excavated from the Imperial Palace and nearby canals. Atop the hill are 5 individual peaks, each peak topped with its own elaborate temple or pavilion. The park also seems to act as a meeting point for elderly people to play cards, take dancing lessons or sing opera.


















Drum Tower
The Drum Tower, and its neighbour the Bell Tower, were originally used as musical instruments in China, before later being used to tell the time. As early as the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220) there was a morning bell and a dusk drum. The towers of Beijing were built around 1272 and have been totally rebuilt twice after begin destroyed by fire. Originally there were 25 drums housed in the tower, but many were destroyed by allied forces during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. The Drum Tower in Beijing was also the scene of a bizarre murder-suicide just before the 2008 Olympics, when an unemployed man stabbed an American tourist to death before throwing himself to his death from the tower! Whilst we were there the tower was closed so we were unable to take in the views over Beijing's rooftops.






















Silk Market
This six story "market" continues to thrive despite many of the vendors being hit by lawsuits from top-name brands tired of being counterfeited on such a large scale. Of all the hundreds of products on sale, I think the only thing that is not 100% fake is the silk itself. Everything from Gucci handbags, I-pods, the latest Nikon cameras, to Adidas shoes, and tourist t-shirts are sold. And when I say "sold", I really mean literally shoved in your face by pushy sales girls who will grab your arm if you decide not to stop for the 20th time in 10 minutes to look at their stall ! "Lady, lady, you buy??" Not quite sure why they think shoving and grabbing will make you buy something from them when the same tactic didn't work the first 20 times. If you do actually find something you like they begin with such crazy prices (AUD$50.00 for a t-shirt !) that all you can do is laugh. Let the bargaining begin!

Alli xxx