China Tour- Day 2- Beijing - Tianammen Square & Forbidden City

Tiananmen Square  named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world. it is 100 acres and was initially the "front door" of the Forbidden City.

                                                       Our first look at the Square

 The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty.

The large building in the background is The Revolutionary History Museum (East side). 

  The Great Hall of the People, which is the seat of China's government, is on the opposite side (West side).

 The Monument of the Peoples Heroes represents the working people who fought for the Republic.  One of 2 monuments (Picture below) to the people in front of Mao's tomb.

                                   Represents the soldiers who fought for the Republic.   

                                          Mausoleum built after Mao's death in 1976

                       

 

The Meridian Gate

                                                                             Then the rains came

                                                             Good bye to the Tiananmen Square

                     Waiting for Tony, our tour guide, to get the tickets for us to enter the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is the world's largest palace complex, consisting of many buildings with 9,999 rooms protected by a 20 foot wide moat and a 32 foot high wall.  We, of course, did not see the entire palace.  The Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing Dynasties where outside visitors were forbidden for five centuries.  it was built from 1406 to 1420 by the third Ming emperor Yongle, who upon usurping the throne move his capital from Nanjing to Beijing.  In 1911 the Qing dynasty fell to the republican revolutionaries. The last emperor, Puyi, continued to live in the palace after his abdication until he was expelled in 1924.  Twenty-four emperors lived and ruled from this palace during a 500-yeaar span.

        Tony, our tour guy, in the red shirt and Myra with her China umbrella before the Meridian gate.

 

Meridian Gate

 

Puyi awaits us.  After seeing the movie the Last Emperor which was filmed in the Forbidden city.  It was just unbelievable to walk where you know the past emperors have passed. 

 

Going through the gate with hundreds of other people with umbrellas.

Inner Golden Water Bridge- The Inner Golden Water River flows beneath the the Inner Golden Water River Bridges. The central bridge was used exclusively by the emperor. The two flanking it were for use by members of the royal family. The two outer bridges were for court officials. The bridges have marble balustrades richly carved with dragon and phoenix motifs. The Inner Golden Water River Bridges were supposed to represent the five Virtues preached by Confucius, benevolence, righteousness, rites, intelligence and fidelity. They were shaped like five arrows reporting symbolically to Heaven, because the emperor considered himself the Son of Heaven. 

Gate of Supreme Harmony is the second major gate at the southern side of the Forbidden City.

It is flanked by two minor gates, Zhendu Gate to the west and Zhaode Gate to the east.

The central stairway was reserved exclusively for the Emperor and his immediate attendants, as was the central entrance of Meridian Gate.

 Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest Hall in the Forbidden City. Built above three levels of marble stone base, and surrounded by bronze incense burners, the Hall of Supreme Harmony is one of the largest wooden structures within China.

 

These fancy rooftop decorations were only allowed on the official buildings of the empire. The more important the person the more figures on the roof eves.

At the tail of the procession will be an imperial dragon representing the authority of the state.

At the head of the procession will be a man riding a Phoenix, one legend suggests that this represents a minon of the emperor who grew greedy for power and was hanged from the roof gable for treason. Another version of this figurine is an immortal riding a fenghuang-bird or qilin. Yet another interpretation is that this is a person serving the emperor, being watched by the following beasts.

In between will be mythical beasts, usually an odd number of them. The mythical beasts are set to pounce upon the man and devour him should he stray from performing his duties with faithfulness and rectitude.

• Dragon, - the dragon protects against fire by controlling the rain and the sea. It is the primary symbol of the imperial throne.
• Phoenix, - the phoenix is the king of birds and controls the wind and air.
• Lion, the lion is the king of the beasts and the most powerful of the animals. The lion protects the country and the imperial rule.
• Heavenly horse, can run like the wind and travel thousands of miles in a day.
• Auspicious seahorse, has control over water to protect buildings from fire.
• Suan Ni,  a mythical beast which is a combination of lion, wild beast, and wild horse.
• Guardian fish,  wind- and storm-summoning fish.
• Xiezhi, a fabulous monster, which could tell right from wrong and use its horn to gore an evildoer whenever there is a fight.

• Bull,- the bull dispels evil and fights the enemy with its horns 

 

                                 Hall of Central Harmony and behind it Hall of Preserving Harmony

We are waiting for the tour group as each of us visits the "Happy Place" as our tour guide call the restroom.

                                                                  The loving swans are in center of the tile wall

                                                                      This is jade

                                                                  First electric lights in the Palace

                                                                   Imperial Garden

                                         One of the four pavilion symbolizing the four seasons

 

I think this is the Hall of Imperial Peace

                                            

   The moat that surrounds the Forbidden City and one of the four Corner Watchtowers as we leave the Forbidden City.

                                                          I'm Loving It .... McDonald's

China Tour late July 2011 - Day 1-Beihai Park, Tea Houses, Hutongs

We arrived in Beijing the day before our Viking River Cruise was to begin.  So, with some suggestions our tour guide left in a note for us so we set out on our own. We mapped out our plan a bit ambitious we later discovered. We decided to go to Beihai Park first.  Beihai Park is an imperial garden to the northwest of the Forbidden City in Beijing. First built in the 10th century, it is among the largest of Chinese gardens, and contains numerous historically important structures, palaces and temples. Since 1925, the place has been open to the public as a park. The park surrounds Beihai Park Lake, whose island has the White Pagoda.

                                                                Entrance to the Park                          

Sitting room in palace.  Chinese palaces are many separate buildings connected by gardens and walk ways.

The Hall of Great Bliss and Anticipation - The hall is a great work in extant structure of the Ming Dynasty, founded during the Wanli period. Worshiped here are the Buddha of Three Worlds (World of Past, Present and Future) and the eighteen arhats, which in Buddhism signifies a spiritual practitioner who has realized certain high stages of attainment.

The Nine Dragon Wall lies north of the Five-Dragon Pavilion. It was built in 1402 and is one of three walls of its kind in China. It is made of glaze bricks of seven-colors. Nine complete dragons playing in the clouds decorate both sides of the wall.

 The old woman was doing Chinese calligraphy with water and a large paint brush on the sidewalk.

Beihai Lake whose Island has the White Pagoda, which occupies the site of Kublai Khan's palace. 

                    

                                                           Starbucks is everywhere

                              The walkway was lined with Tea Houses and other places to eat.

                                                      The beautiful Lotus blossoms

We took the tunnel walkway to get back across the street and this old gentleman was panhandling and willing to take a picture.

We went to Hutongs, which has narrow streets and alleys, most commonly associated with.  In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods.  It is 700 years old.

We had a tour on a rickshaw by a very funny guy who spoke pretty good English.  The place with the red doors is a Mahjong House and the men in the street are having a game.

                                  The wheel behind the short post was used to crush wheat in the old days.

                            School yard- This is our tour guide and Myra in the rickshaw .

 This was supposedly a general's house noted by the two poles coming out of the door.  All of this information is according to our tour guide.

                                                Very narrow alley ways.

We ended our tour and started for our next sight when it started to rain.  We got a taxi just before the heavens opened up so we went back to the hotel and by the time the rains stopped it was too late to go to the zoo so I did  not get to see the Giant Pandas.  I guess it will have to wait till next visit.