Places of Interest - China

Gate of the Heavenly Peace:

Tiananmen (literally: gate of Heavenly Peace), which is now the state symbol of the People's Republic, dates from 1417 and was then called the Gate of the Empire. The gate gave access to the imperial city behind it, within which the Forbidden City was located with the former imperial palace. Only the emperor could use this gate. The gate was made of wood and burned twice. Here Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. You can climb the gate and enjoy the beautiful view. On the front, above the gate, the portrait of Chairman Mao hangs. It was introduced on 7 July 1949 to celebrate victory in the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. Every year on October 1 it is renewed, because of the smog and occasionally the portrait is daubed because of the symbol value. There are countless replicas.

Mausoleum and obelisk

In the middle of the square, where once stood the Imperial gate, is now the mausoleum where the body of Mao Zedong has been laid out since 1976. Visitors are standing on the square in a long line that slowly shuffles forward. Once inside the row shuffles past the box - standing still is not allowed. Many Chinese people want to visit the mausoleum at least once in their lives. Opposite the mausoleum is a granite obelisk, 37 meters high, which is the Monument for the People's Heroes. It was dedicated to the soldiers who were killed during the Chinese Revolution on 1 May 1958. The history of the Chinese Revolution is depicted from the first Opium War (1839-1842) until the founding of the People's Republic.

The Forbidden City:

What we now call the Forbidden City was once the Imperial City. This was also a prohibited area for outsiders. In the Imperial City there were, among other things, a bakery, a sewing workshop, the armory, stables and a printing house. In this way the emperor and his entourage were entirely self-sufficient. The Purple Forbidden City complex is 750 by 960 meters, consists of 800 buildings and was completed under the Yongle emperor, in 1422. From here, 24 Chinese emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties ruled their empire. Most buildings now date from the 18th century. Around the complex there is a wide, deep canal and a wall of ten meters high. The city was divided into the Inner-court, where the emperor lived, and the Outer-court where the court members lived. This consisted, among other things, of the concubines, the palace guards and the eunuchs. All in all, several thousand people lived in the Forbidden City. Contemporary visitors enter through the southern and/or the northern gate. At the southern entrance on the side of the Tiananmen Square, the emperor inspected the troops when they began to deliver and welcomed them upon return in case of a victory. 

The first courtyard is intersected by the Golden Water Stream. There are five little bridges, the middle one was only for the emperor. Through a gatehouse one arrives at a second courtyard, also surrounded by several pavilions. Here is the 'Pavilion of the Prayer for a good Harvest'. Here the emperor came to pray after the winter after he had fasted for three days. The grand buildings and squares were laid out to impress visitors. Striking is the symmetry and the harmony in the construction style and the typical style of building. In the southern part imperial ceremonies were held and examinations for mandarins were taken. In 1914 an ancient museum was set up in the Outer-court, and in 1925 the Palace Museum was opened. Since the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949 many buildings in the Forbidden City have been restored. Attempts are being made to restore art treasures and to set up exhibitions in the pavilions. In 1961 the Imperial Palace was declared a monument by the Chinese State. In 1987 it was registered with Unesco as 'World Heritage'.

Other attractions in downtown Beijing:

Jingshan Park:

Slightly north of the Forbidden City and behind the Imperial Garden is the "Jingshan" Park. This hill park, also known as the coal hill, due to the fact that a coal stock was hidden underneath it, was built from the sand from the palace canals. The hill would keep the evil spirits of the palace grounds. It was in this park that the last Ming Emperor Chongzhen hung himself in a tree. From the top you have a breathtaking panorama of the Forbidden City and Beijing. 

Beihai Park:

This park was the original place where Mongolian leader "Kublai Khan" built his palace where unfortunately nothing is left. The park now houses numerous dagobas, temples and consists largely of a lake. In the middle of the lake lies the "Jade" island with the monumental Temple of Eternal Peace and the White dagoba with its striking temple.

Lama temple:

The Lama Temple, also known as the 'Yonghe Temple', is a beautiful temple and also a monastery of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism in the northeast of the city of Beijing. It is one of the largest most perfectly preserved and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artwork of the temple is a combination of Han Chinese and Tibetan styles. This would serve as a living space for the then emperor Yongzheng. 

Hutongs:

Hutongs which literally means “alley-ways” are made up of siheyuans. A siheyuan is a building complex of four buildings (houses with several families, workshops and average shops) around a central square surrounded by a wall. In the past they were numerous, but the siheyuans and hutongs disappear at a rapid pace. The vacated land is built up with high-rise buildings. In view of the 2008 Summer Olympics, these old and defining neighborhoods are being torn down or hidden behind walls, the government thinks the hutongs are a disgrace to Beijing. There remain some hutongs to serve as an open-air museum. For example, the hutong in Nanchizi is spared. Tourists are led along the remaining hutongs with a rickshaw. 

Other attractions are the "Confucius" temple, "Ditan" park, St. Jozef church, the drum and bell tower, the "Zhihua" temple, the "Dongyue" temple, the "Cow-street" mosque and numerous museums.

Summer Palace:

The Summer Palace or Yiheyuan is one of Beijing's most visited sites and it takes at least half a day to get the feeling of it and see het place. The complex of 70,000 m² has been laid out in a vast area around a large, artificial lake, the Kunming lake. This lake is a replica of the West Lake near Hangzhou and consists of all kinds of richly decorated and well-preserved pavilions, galleries, houses and temples. It was this country home where the Emperors and their followers resided during the hot summer months and the Forbidden City began to look and feel like an oven. This place was traditionally a country residence of several dynasties emperors, but the current buildings date from the time of Cixi, the Empress-widow. At the end of the 19th century, it had the whole complex expanded, and stayed here for the most part during the last years of the empire. Since the Revolution it is a large public park. Important sites in the complex are the marble boat, the long corridor and the temple of a sea of wisdom. Since 1998 the palace has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage. The complex is located 12 km northwest of the Forbidden City.

The Chinese Wall (Badaling):

One of the world's largest constructions is the Chinese wall or Great Wall with its 6000 kilometers of length. The first piece of wall that is associated with the Great Wall probably dates from the 7th century BC. Rival tribes decided on a defensive barrier mostly consisting of tamped earth and loam. Qin Shi Huangdi (also responsible for, among other things, the terracotta army) eventually conquered all competing states and united in 221 BC. China under his rule. This emperor decided to unite and strengthen the walls on the northern border, fearing the attacks of nomadic tribes. The Han rulers expanded the Great Wall even further during their successive four centuries of government, but in the centuries that followed the defense complex fell into disrepair. This situation changed when the Mongolians were expelled in 1368 by the autochthonous Ming dynasty. After years of offensive it was decided to build an improved Wall to keep the nomads outside the door. A continuous line of defense of some 6,300 kilometers was built from the Hexi corridor in Gansu to the Gulf of Bohai and the river Yalu on the border with Korea. From more than 1000 forts and watchtowers the watch was held. The guard posts were in contact with each other using smoke signals. On average, the Great Wall was one and a half meters wide and five meters high. The Wall received dozens of gates, which were used for the tightly regulated trade with the steppe colonies. The gate on the west side, near Jiayuguan, would be widely used by travelers on the Silk Road. In the early 17th century, the Ming dynasty was plagued by the Manchus and domestic unrest. Several Ming generals passed to the Manchus and opened the Great Wall at Shanhaiguan. The Manchus conquered all of China and founded the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. Under their rule, the Chinese borders in the north and west were greatly expanded and the Great Wall lost its military function.

The Wall has been badly damaged or even broken down in many places. The stones are often used for other purposes or the wall is damaged by erosion or war violence. At various points, the Wall has been renovated in its former glory and you can visit it. Near Beiing, Badaling is probably the most popular piece Wall of 6 meters high with beautiful renovated watchtowers over a number of hills. You can visit this part of the Wall that is located 70 km northwest of Beijing or with a tour on your own. The Great Wall was included in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1987. In 2007, the Chinese Wall was chosen as one of the seven new wonders of the world.

Ming Tombes:

At the foot of the Mountain of "Heavenly Long Life" 13 emperors of the "Ming" dynasty are buried. Of the tombs, built between the year 1409 and 1644, only 3 are open to the public. One of those three, that of Emperor "Winli", is completely decorated for tourists. Via a 7 km long road from the "Ghost" you end up at the tombs which are basically underground fairly bare vaults. The first 750 meters of the road, that of the stone statues, is guarded by two rows of fascinating stone animals and human servants of the Emperors. Often a tour to the Wall is accompanied with a tour along the "Ming" tombs.

Not later than in the 1st millennium BC. there were human establishments around what we now call Beijing. Near the current capital, the provincial capital "Ji" was founded, which is officially called the beginning of Beijing. This was abandoned in the 6th century and even today the exact location is unknown. In 936 during the late "Jin" dynasty a second capital was founded "Zhongdu" on the site of present Beijing. Mongolian troops, including Djenghis Khan, completely burned down this city in 1215 and rebuilt its "big capital", Dadu, strategically at the beginning of the Northern Chinese plains. It would become the capital of the largest empire in the world with Kublai Khan as leader. In 1368 the Mongols were expelled by the "Ming" dynasty. They would call the city "Beiping" which means "northern peace". It would be one of the world's largest cities described in detail by Marco Polo during his travels. In 1403 the third Ming Emperor Yongle moved the capital from Nanking to Beijing. The city wall from the Ming era ran to the place which is now the second ring road. The Forbidden City was built followed by the Celestial Temple and several other buildings. 

After the Manchus had overthrown the Ming dynasty and founded their own Qing dynasty, Beijing remained the capital of the Empire of China. After the revolution in 1911, aimed at transforming the feudal empire into a republic, the capital would originally be moved to Nanking. After the last Qing emperor "Pu Yi" was forced to resign, the revolutionaries in Nanking accepted that the capital would remain Beijing. After the success of the Northern expedition by the nationalist movement "the Kuomintang", in which the northern warlords were pacified, Nanking became officially the capital of the Republic of China in 1928. During the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, the city fell into Japanese hands on July 29, 1937. During the occupation the city became the administrative center of the North China Executive Council, a vassal state ruled by Japan that ruled the occupied territories in North China. With the capitulation of Japan on August 15, 1945, Beijing fell back into Chinese hands. On January 31, 1949, during the Chinese Civil War, the Communist forces conquered the city without fighting. On October 1 of that year, the Communist Party of China, o.l. Mao Zedong, proclaimed the People's Republic of China from the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen). A few days earlier, Beijing had been appointed as the capital again.

On 5 April 1976 a large-scale event took place on the square of the "Heavenly Peace". The people had assembled to commemorate the death of Zhou Enlai, but turned against the totalitarian tyranny of Mao. The Great Helmsman was at the time dying. At night, the few thousand demonstrators who were still present were expelled by force. Sixty of them were beheaded in the Great People's Hall. After more than a month of student protests, it came to a climax again on 4 June 1989. An estimate indicates that there were a million protesters on the street - the largest mass protest against the Communist Party - initially because of the death of a reformist secretary general. Three dissident art students pelted the portrait with eggs filled with paint and were arrested until years of imprisonment. After several failed attempts to end the demonstrations, the army was finally deployed. These opened fire, killing hundreds or perhaps thousands of unarmed civilians. After this bloody depression of the protests, tanks were used to clean the streets and the Square. The most famous images of this are from a man who stood in front of the column of tanks and stopped them and is internationally known as "unknown tank man". It is assumed that when the international cameras were gone the man was shot but this has never been proven. The demonstration had been knocked down and a large number of student leaders were sentenced to death. Many citizens of the student cities of Beijing and Guangzhou fled abroad and received political asylum in North America, Europe and Taiwan. There was worldwide condemnation and consternation about the bloody evacuation of the "Heavenly Peace" square. Despite the strong condemnation of the international community for the massacre, Chinese leadership had strengthened its power base. According to reliable sources, people in China would be held for this even 25 years after the protest. 

Nowadays environmental problems are much bigger than political ones - Beijing is plagued by smog while desert sand blows over the city. Serious water and land shortages have also arisen to the surface. On 28 October 2013, a jeep drove into a crowd on the Square of Heavenly Peace. Five people died in this attack: the three occupants of the car and two tourists with Chinese and Filipino nationality. Forty people were injured. The Chinese authorities suspected that the attack was a suicide attack, committed by ethnic Uyghurs, living in the west of China.