Last days in Beijing
Our second day in China was a guided tour of Tianmen Square, Forbiden City, Summer Palace, and Temple of Heaven. The square, forbidden city, and temple of heaven are all aligned on the chinese meridian. The meridian cuts each site in half. The chinese feel that this and not greenwich england should have been the prime meridian. Supposedly the next thing to be built on this line is the olympic village for the 2008 olympics.
The Forbiden City was amazing. You walk through gate after gate after gate until you finally are in the emperors quarters. The most outside of the area is the old city wall. Tianmen square is just inside this wall. Next up is the imperial city wall, followed by the outer court, inner court, and forbidden city itself. Our tour guide for the day was militant in walking. I think I would have preferred getting the audio tour and exploring on my own. The english version of the tour is narrated by former 007 Mr Moore. The buildings within the city were constructed in traditional chinese methods being know concrete, metal, or nails. Only in wood. One of the fascinating things with chinese architecture is that everything means something. For example, yellow is color of the earth and is only used by emperors. 3 is an important number but not as important as 9 because 9 is the largest single digit odd number. On doors into the Forbiden City, there are 9 rows of 9 knobs on the center door which only the emperor can enter. Within the Forbiden City is a mini Forbiden City which costs a little extra to enter but is well worth it. One of the emperors stepped down from the thrown so as not to be emperor for the same length as his grandfather. So he moved to this mini Forbiden City.
The next stop on the tour was the Summer Palace, a lakeside retreat for the emperor and his family from May through October. Much of this was under construction so we didn't get to see too much of it. There were a lot of areas here to explore and relax but our tour guide was having none of it. The frommers book recommends 3 hours to tour this attraction and we did it under 30 minutes. There was an audio tour at this location too and I should have taken it...next time.
The final stop of the day was the Temple of Heaven. This is a round blue structure (symbolizing heaven) which I posted a picture of in a previous blog. Prior to the Temple, is a structure used for ceremonies. Going out from the center were 9 rings with the inner most ring containing 9 sections and the outer countaining 81. All because 9 and multiples of 9 are very good. Then within the Temple, there are 28 columns in 3 circles. The inner most cirle had 4 columns representing the 4 seasons. The 2nd row had 12 columns representing the 12 months of the year. And the outter most circle was also 12 representing the 12 parts of a day. This was also the site where Smarda took a tumble twisting her ankle.
Saturday night we went to the pedestrian street in Beijing to walk around. We wandered onto a food street which has booths all over the place selling various foods. Meet on a stick could be had for 1 to 4 Yuan... less than $0.50.
The Forbiden City was amazing. You walk through gate after gate after gate until you finally are in the emperors quarters. The most outside of the area is the old city wall. Tianmen square is just inside this wall. Next up is the imperial city wall, followed by the outer court, inner court, and forbidden city itself. Our tour guide for the day was militant in walking. I think I would have preferred getting the audio tour and exploring on my own. The english version of the tour is narrated by former 007 Mr Moore. The buildings within the city were constructed in traditional chinese methods being know concrete, metal, or nails. Only in wood. One of the fascinating things with chinese architecture is that everything means something. For example, yellow is color of the earth and is only used by emperors. 3 is an important number but not as important as 9 because 9 is the largest single digit odd number. On doors into the Forbiden City, there are 9 rows of 9 knobs on the center door which only the emperor can enter. Within the Forbiden City is a mini Forbiden City which costs a little extra to enter but is well worth it. One of the emperors stepped down from the thrown so as not to be emperor for the same length as his grandfather. So he moved to this mini Forbiden City.
The next stop on the tour was the Summer Palace, a lakeside retreat for the emperor and his family from May through October. Much of this was under construction so we didn't get to see too much of it. There were a lot of areas here to explore and relax but our tour guide was having none of it. The frommers book recommends 3 hours to tour this attraction and we did it under 30 minutes. There was an audio tour at this location too and I should have taken it...next time.
The final stop of the day was the Temple of Heaven. This is a round blue structure (symbolizing heaven) which I posted a picture of in a previous blog. Prior to the Temple, is a structure used for ceremonies. Going out from the center were 9 rings with the inner most ring containing 9 sections and the outer countaining 81. All because 9 and multiples of 9 are very good. Then within the Temple, there are 28 columns in 3 circles. The inner most cirle had 4 columns representing the 4 seasons. The 2nd row had 12 columns representing the 12 months of the year. And the outter most circle was also 12 representing the 12 parts of a day. This was also the site where Smarda took a tumble twisting her ankle.
Saturday night we went to the pedestrian street in Beijing to walk around. We wandered onto a food street which has booths all over the place selling various foods. Meet on a stick could be had for 1 to 4 Yuan... less than $0.50.
posted by Robert @ 11:01 PM
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