| Sightseeing |
| Overview>> Culture>> Weather>> |
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| The Great Wall: |
The Wall extends
for a good 3,000 miles from its origin at the seaside in Shanhaiguan
(the Old Dragon Head), a seaport along the coast of Bohai Bay
in the east, all the way to Jiayu Pass in Gansu Province. Stretching
from the eastern part of Liaoning in Northeast China to Lintao
(in modern Minxian) on the desert in the northwest of China,
it passes through Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia,
Shaanxi, Ningxia, and Gansu. The Chinese li equals 0.5 kilometer,
so the Great Wall is 10,000 li long in Chinese measurement and
hence it is known in Chinese as the Ten-Thousand-Li Long Wall.
Serious readers who measure it on the map will find out that
the actual distance is only about 3,000 kilometers since the
wall zigzags along the mountain ridges!
The Great Wall
was a gigantic defensive project used in ancient times as early
as in the 7th century B.C. For self-protection, rival kingdoms
built walls around their territories, laying foundations for
the present Great Wall. When Qin Shihuang (First Emperor of
the Qin) unified the whole country in 221 B.C., the existing
walls were linked up and new ones added to counter attacks by
the remnants of the defeated states. The undertaking of such
a huge project over difficult terrain at that time without any
machinery was an extraordinary feat. A workforce of nearly a
million, representing one fifth of the whole labour force of
the country, was used to build it. Hardship and cruel treatment
brought death to many of the laborers, and tragic stories were
told, from which folk-tales and legends came into being. Subsequent
dynasties continued to strengthen and extend the wall.
  
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| Forbidden City: |
The Forbidden
City, officially known as the Imperial Palace Museum, was commissioned
by the third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The palace was built
between 1406 and 1420, but was burnt down, rebuilt, sacked and
renovated countless times, so most of the architecture you can
see today dates from the 1700¡¯s and on wards. The Forbidden
City was the seat of Imperial power for 500 years, and is now
a major tourist attraction in China. The total area of the complex
is 183 acres, so it takes quite a while to walk through, especially
if you want to have a close look at everything. All together
there are 9,999 1/2 rooms in the Museum, not all of which can
be visited.
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| Temple of Heaven: |
Built between
1409 and 1420, the Temple of Heave is one of Beijing¡¯s most
impressive parks in terms of Heaven is one of Beijing¡¯s most
impressive parks in terms of architecture, color and significance.
The Temple is basically a huge communications terminal which
the Emperor used to communicate directly with Heaven. Sereral
times a year, the Emperor would come here to pray for good harvests,
enough rain and other heavenly boons. The construction of the
Temple is based around the number nine, the largest of the single
digits, which is divine in Chinese numerology. The Temple consists
of four basic parts: the Round Altar, the Echo Wall, the Imperial
Vault of Heaven, and the Hall of prayer for Good Harvests.
The Round Altar
is where the Emperor would report on the status of the country
to Heaven. The Altar is constructed in the middle, anything
you say is amplified several times. This is because when the
Emperor was talking with Heaven, his voice was supposed to be
amplified so that it was as if his voice was as loud as the
collective voice of a whole nation.
The
Echo Wall is a round structure which if you whisper along the
inner wall, your voice can be heard all the way around the other
side. However, there is always a crowd of people whispering(and
shouting) so it is very hard to get the desired effect. Supposedly
the Emperor would use this method to secretly confer with Inner
Court members.
The Imperial
Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests are
both structures which were places of worship for the Emperor.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is remarkable because it
is a 38-meter-tall building which does not have a single nail
holding it together. The original was burnt down in 1889 but
has been faithfully reconstructed. The hall has 28 wooden pillars
supporting a 39-meter tower of three conical roofs, covered
with blue glazed tiles, to reflect the color of the sky. The
wooden walls are richly decorated, inside and out. |
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