Beijing

The Capital of People’s Republic of China, Beijing is a metropolis in northern China and the word literally means Northern Capital. This third largest city in China in terms of population is known as China’s educational, political and cultural center. In fact, Beijing was the largest city in the world between 1425 and 1650. Just like cities in the world Beijing too went through the typical urbanization problem of cluttered development in all its directions, with pollution, traffic and losing historic importance. However, in the year 2005 the government approved a plan by which the city will be spread only in the west and east but outside the city centre. In spite of taking utmost care for controlling the messy expansion, the city keeps developing rapidly bringing with it some typical problems. The city carries an inseparable smog layer in the air and polluted water supply. The government also has to carry out “power-saving” programs often which keep the citizens and the visitors complaining. Yet, the city is a popular tourist place due to its cultural heritage. In fact, Beijing would be the host city for the summer Olympics in 2008. Beijing has a significant history. This city has gone through the change of names a number of times from 1057 BC since King Wu first declared it as the Capital City. In fact, Till 1949 Beijing was known as Peking to the rest of the world. Along with the interesting history the city also has a range of fascinations for the tourists. Due to a strong influence of the cosmopolitan culture the city shows a fantastic mix of architecture of 1950s and the modern designing. Visiting Beijing is like visiting any large city from the world but when you meet the warm and friendly people, you fall in love with the city. Further when you go around visiting the fascinating sites you never recover from the love.

The Great Wall at Badaling

Probably the most talked about landmark in China is The Great Wall. It was built as a military defense structure and was the greatest manmade structure of its kind in ancient China. It was a culture to build walls around the territories in ancient China to protect from the wars. Qin Shihuang became the first emperor of the unified China in 221 B.C. He joined the separate walls into one single wall to protect against rivals and intruders from the North of China. The following dynasties too guarded the wall well and kept renovating and restoring it time to time. However, the wall kept on getting destroyed and the current wall is about 6000 kilometers in length and spreads out from the east at Yalu River in Liaonding Province to Jiayuguan Pass in Gansu Province in the west in North China. The part of the great wall in Badaling is the most symbolic section of the Great Wall of China. The wall is more than 7 meters high and 5 meters wide. This part is considered as an important historical site under state protection in 1961 and was listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1987.

Temple of Heaven

The temple of Haven is divided into an outer temple and an inner temple by a wall. This wall is designed to symbolize the ancient belief about a square earth (the square shaped southern part) and the round Haven (semi circular northern part). The temple was built in 1420 by Ming Emperor and was renovated and redesigned during the Ming emperor as well as preceding Qing Emperors. They worshiped Heaven and prayed for good harvests in these temples. Within the inner temple there are north structure and south structure partitions. Each spring the hall of prayers for good harvest was used in the northern structure and south structure which is a circular mound altar was used to worship Heaven during winter time. The Temple of Heaven is listed by UNESCO as a human heritage of the world in the year 1998.

The Palace Museum

Built between 1406 and 1420 The Imperial Palace or the palace museum is the largest ancient imperial structures in China. It is spread over 720,000 square meters with more than 8500 rooms. The Palace had been a permanent residence of the Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors. The Palace is also known as Forbidden City and is surrounded by a ten meters high wall. The front part of the Palace is the outer court for the emperors where they carried out important ceremonies and the back part is the inner court where they carried out their day to day routine state affairs. This is the part where they lived with their families. The Palace was used as a residence since the third emperor of Ming Dynasty and 24 emperors of Ming as well as Qing Dynasty have lived in this palace. The Palace museum is considered as World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1987.

Tian'anmen Square

During he Qing and Ming Dynasties Tian’AnMen square which literally means Gate of Heavenly Peace was the main entrance to the Forbidden City. After it was built in the year 1417, it was destroyed by the fire twice and was rebuilt and named as Tian’anmen in 1651 during Qing Dynasty. There are five watch towers and the building is 34.7 meters high. The structure is a masterwork of art and represents China’s ancient architecture. The Tian’anmen Square is the world’s largest city squares. Sprawled over 440,000 square meters the square can accommodate half a million people at a time. This square is also considered the "Gate of the Nation” for China.

The Summer Palace

An excellent example of classical Chinese architecture is The Summer Palace. The garden design is the best representative of the traditional Chinese garden design. After many damages in wars the Palace was rebuilt. During People’s Republic of China was initiated, The Summer palace was renovated with a few attractions refurbished and preserved for the visits of the tourists from across the world. The Summer Palace holds a very precious work of cultural art. This place was one of the first cultural heritage sites in China which was placed under special state protection. UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List in the end of 1998.

The Lama Temple

Originally built in the Qing Dynasty as the mansion for prince Yongzheng before he became the Emperor, the structure was later turned into an imperial palace for the Emperor’s short stays. Later in the year 1744 it was converted into a lamasery. Today The Lama Temple is the largest Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Beijing. The whole structure of the temple is adorned with distinctive features from Tibetan, Han, Manchu and Mongolian cultures. The gate has three beautiful archways. The temple holds many halls, each with a specialty and well preserved Buddhist statues. Three of these pieces are listed in Guinness Book of World Records. While the Lama Temple was in a bad shape before the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949, it received great attention from the new government. After proper protection and renovation the Temple was listed as one of the important national cultural heritage in 1961. But it was opened to public only in the year 1981.

The World Park in Beijing

Representing 106 most famous sites from 14 different countries and regions around the world, the World Park is located about 16 kilometers away from the actual city of Beijing. Facilities of motorboats and electric train are available to trip around this 116 acres of world. Each part of the world is presented in a beautiful miniature way according to its position in the map. It is adorned by interesting and famous spots around the world. To relax after the world trip, the park provides an entertainment area accommodating shopping area, dining area and other entertainment facilities. This area is portrayed through American and European style structures. Most of the structures created in this park are made using the same material as the original ones. The marble, granite, copper and golden sculptures provide the viewers with a very realistic feel. At the lawns in the park, 100 well known figures from around the world are spread over in miniature forms. The Statue of Liberty and Michelangelo’s David are two among those 100.