Beijing

Three cities symbolize the eras in China’s history: Peking represents the present, Xian the past and Shanghai the future.

Our virtual journey begins in the capital city of Peking, also known as Beijing. With a population of approximately 7.5 million, it previously often served as the imperial residence. 

In addition to modern office buildings and hotels, the city is characterized by the cultural heritage of the Imperial Age and was designed to reflect the structure of the universe.

 At the Altar of Heaven, which stood for the center of a square earth with a curved sky above, the Emperor would give the sky an account of his last year of reign and asked for blessings for the year to come. The Arch of Heaven, as this one-storey round hall was named, is home to the Ghost Boards of Heaven and the Ancestor Boards belonging to the ancestors of the emperor. The hall is surrounded by a Wall of Echos, which reflects sounds in an optimal manner thanks to its precise design. Through the Gate of Earth and Harvest one comes to the round inner courtyard which is dominated by the Hall of Earth and Harvest. This hall is captivating due to its perfect proportions, with a diameter of 30 m and a height of 38 m.  The roof is covered with 50,000 blue glazed tiles.

The center of the paths and steps are covered with white marble plates and reliefs upon which only the Emperor could walk or be carried in a sedan chair.

 In the interior of the hall you today will find symbolic representation of the harvest sacrifice. More important, however, are the architectural symbols and their design.  The entire hall is supported by 28 columns.  The inner ring of columns symbolizes the four seasons, the middle ring of columns symbolizes the 12 months of the year and the outer ring of columns symbolizes the 12 double hours of the day.  In accordance with Chinese tradition, the entire building is constructed from wood without the use of a single nail.

Together with the Emperor’s Palace, the entire grounds of the temple was constructed in around 1420 and is today the largest temple in China.

The covered paths along the sides of the temple property today serve as an area for older people to play music and sing. It thus represents a center of communication right in the middle of the city.

On the way to the Emperor’s Palace going north, you pass a city gate still preserved from the old city wall, known as the Qianmen Gate. You then reach the Square of Heavenly Peace  or Tian’anmen -  the largest public square in the world.

On the western side, the square is delineated by the Great Hall of the People – the headquarters of the People’s Parliament and the Communist Party. To the south of the square is the Mao Mausoleum. To the east you find the History and Revolution Museum and to the north – through the Gate of Heavenly Peace – Tian’anmen – you find the entrance gate to the Emperor’s Palace, whose façade features one of the few public images of Mao still found in China today.  With his image, the Great Chairman Mao Tse Tung wished to demonstratively  document his claim to empirical power. Many Chinese still wish to view Mao’s mummified remains. 

The center of the square is marked by a 40m high monument for the People’s Heros and a memorial depicting scenes from China’s revolutionary history. 

Once you pass the Tian’anmen Gate and several antique cannons, you stand before a gate – the Meridian Gate.  With its impressive dimensions, every visitor is reduced to feeling incredibly small.  The immense size of the grounds serves to clearly demonstate in an impressive manner how powerful the Chinese rulers were.

No trees were allowed to be planted in this area due to fear of attack against the Emperor’s life. The gigantic oil lamps served as lighting while the large metal containers were filled with water to extinguish any flames. The three-tiered terraces upon which the halls are built serve both as a demonstration of power and to channel rainwater.

This structure was built between 1410 und 1420 during the Ming Dynasty, following a 10 year period of construction. The construction involved 100,000 soldiers and 1 million workers.   24 emperors resided in this palace.  The Forbidden City was the center of political power in China for over 500 years. 

Behind the Gate of Supreme Harmony is the Hall of Supreme Harmony, which is guarded by two powerful lions.  This hall served exclusively for The Emperor’s ceremonial events such as ascendancy to the throne, birthdays or weddings.  The outer courtyard was used for political events.

A view of the Emperor’s throne is possible if you are patient and can face the almost life-threatening press of crowds. 

After the Hall of Supreme Harmony we come to the Hall of  Medium Harmony where the Emperor would once a year check the wheat seeds to be sown. We also come to the Hall of Protective Harmony where the Emperor conducted government  exams.  Whoever passed this exam could leave the Palace through the main gate.

From here you have a beautiful view of the Baita Pagoda in Beihai Park, which was erected in 1651 to commemorate the visit of the 5th Dalai Lama.

In the northern section of the Forbidden City lies the Emperor’s Garden.  Not all of the palace’s 8000 rooms are open to the public. However, it is still possible to spend quite a bit of time visiting some of the outbuildings, such as the Palace Museum or the Palace where Pu Yi, the Last Emperor, lived between 1912 and 1924.

A must-see for visitors to Peking is the Summer Palace, also called the Garden of  Harmonious Unity. Construction began in 1153 during the Jin Dynasty and was completed in 1764 during the Qing Dynasty. In 1860 the Palace was destroyed by English and French troops to humiliate the imperial family.   In 1888 the Emperor’s widow Cixi began reconstruction of the Palace using resources which should have served to reconstruct the Imperial Fleet.  During the Boxer Rebellion, the Palace was once again destroyed and rebuilt in 1903.

In addition to the private residences of the Guangxu Emperor and Cixi the Emperor’s widow, the 730m long corridor tracing Chinese history through the ages is particularly impressive with its 8000 pictures and scenes.  Moving past the Mountain of  Longevity, we come to the Ship of Marble which, in contrast to the Imperial Fleet, has never moved its location.

On the other side of the Mountain of Longevity, you find the remains of the Sumeru Temple and the old Suzhou Road. Suzhou Road was built as a shopping street exclusively for the Empress where she could pass the time and make purchases with money especially printed for her.   Today souvenirs and local handicrafts are sold here

The Great Wall of China, here seen at Badaling, is no doubt one of the major highlights of a trip to China.  There is varying information available on the actual length of the wall.  Normally, a length of 6800 km is assumed.  The start of wall construction reach back to 656 AD, when the Chu Empire  erected the first wall as a defense against the State of Qi.  Following unification of the Empire, the first Chinese Emperor Qinshi had the initial wall section connected to a common wall.  At times there were up to 100,000 soldiers and 800,000 forced laborers involved in building the wall. If they died on the job, they were buried in the wall.  Large sections of the wall later lost importance, as these sections ran through independent territory.  Only during the Ming Dynasty was the wall completely restored and served as protection against the Mongolians who returned to the north after the Yuan Dynasty was toppled.  

The wall’s importance was not just for defence purposes, however. The wall was very important as a connecting road, a path of transport and communication and providing lodgings for troops and storage for weapons and munitions.

Half way between the Great Wall and Peking are the masoleums of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors.  The grave of Dingling, the Wanli Emperor between 1572 and  1620, is freely accessible.   The grave, located 27 m below ground, can be reached through an ante-chamber which was empty when it was discovered.  The actual grave chamber holds 3 coffins: the Emperor’s, his wife’s and that of a concubine.  Between the entrance and the foyer is another hall containing three marble thrones with small altars.

Each grave includes a higher Stela Pavillion with the Remembrance Stela of the deceased.  If no text is found on the stela it means that the level of fame of the deceased was so great that the room assigned to hold it was not large enough.

From the outside, each grave appears only as a round mound of earth. 

The original preparation halls where the deceased were sacrified today serve as display areas for extensions to the grave or copies.

The masoleum complex is reached through the Dragon and Phoenix Gate. In front of the gate is a 800 m long Path of Souls built in 1540, which is lined with pairs of larger-than-life sized animals, mythical figures and government officials made of stone.   The sculptor made a mistake when creating the lying elephant however.  The deceased Emperor was carried along this alley on his last journey.

In the Stela Pavillion a 6.5 m high stela, lifted from a stone turtle, carries the inscriptions of the 4th Emperor of the Hongxi Dynasty describing the grave of his father who selected the valley location. 

Beijing’s Tower of Bells and Tower of Drums offers an excellent view of the Hutong located below.  In ancient China the day was divided into double hours.

If possible, you should try to visit a Chinese kindergarten. You will notice the great discipline displayed by even the youngest child.

At the Residence of Prince Gong, the younger brother of the Xianfeng Emperor, you can gain good insight into a royal family’s lifestyle.   Following the death of the Emperor, Prince Gong was co-ruler together with the Emperor’s widow Cixi of the underage Tongzhi Emperor. 

Every evening in the in-house theatre, performances by the Peking Opera take place.

 The well-preserved Lama Tempel in the eastern section of Peking was originally built in 1694 as the living quarters for the successor to the Kangxi Emperor.  In 1744 the palace was converted into a Tibetan Buddhist temple and is today the seat of the Panchen Lama who is recognized as the incarnation of the Armitabha Buddha.