Historical and Cultural tour

The 6th day was the start of our historical and cultural tour in Beijing. With more than 2000 years of rich history, Beijing is both an ancient and cosmopolitan city. For a start, we visited the Summer Palace, or 颐和园 in Chinese. This was a huge garden built during Ch'ien Long Emperor's time (1736-1796), mainly a haven to escape the harsh summer. However, it was burnt down during the war between the Allied Forces and The Ching Court in 1900. Greatly favored by the Empress Dowager, a huge sum of money originally budgeted to reinforce the country's navy was used to renovate the burnt down Summer Palace.

The boards are worded in both in Han （汉）and Manchurian（满）.This was to show that the Manchurian emperors wanted the Hans and the Manchurian to live as one big family, and viewed the Hans as an integral part of the Ching Empire.

A point to note is that Manchurian is a near-extinct language in the world.

The Summer Palace was greatly favored by the Empress Dowager as her favorite hide-out, hence we can see the luxury and magnificence of this garden. Given the fact that Western forces "invaded" China during late Ching, we can also see Western influences in the Summer Palace.

On the seventh day, we visited the famous Great Wall of China. Aptly named as part of the "Seven Wonders of the World", you have to witness it for yourself the "Magnificence" （霸气）of this incredible structure. However, millions of lives have been sacrificed to build this structure.

After Qin Shih Huang conquered the Warring States in B.C.E. 246, he wanted to combine the various defense fortresses to form a long barricade against the barbarians from invading the Central Plains. To complete this massive project, Qin Shih Huang introduced the corvee system and forced every able-bodied male-commoner to construct the Great Wall.

As the air was thin in the mountainous region, we climbed the wall breathless. Finally, after climbing for 40 minutes, we gave up and decided to descend, not forgetting to get some "Great Wall" memorabilia. After all, we have completed the task of becoming "real men". (Mao Tse Dong said: "If you have never been to the Great Wall, you are not a real man"-不到长城非好汉)

After completing our trip to the Great Wall, we made our way to the Ming Tombs. The Ming Tombs are tomb gardens constructed for 13 of the 16 Ming Emperors (1368-1644), and only 1 has been opened up for tourists to visit, which is the Ding Tomb （定陵）. Ding Tomb is the grave site of Emperor Wan Li (1573-1620), the longest reigning emperor in Ming history.

Upon arriving, we felt a somber mood immediately, and were told not to be rowdy while visiting the underground tomb as a form of respect for the deceased. Also, we were told to keep in our hearts the sentence "Here I come" （我来了！）upon entering the tomb gates. As we went to the underground tomb site, we could see the extravagance of a royal tomb. A throne, together with jewelry and golden accessories were placed in the tomb, as a symbol of royalty.

As we exited the underground tomb site, we had the chance to visit 2 chambers exhibiting the excavated items found with Emperor Wan Li's body. The fog and mist in the garden added a sense of eeriness and somber to our visit. When it was time to leave the main exit, we were told to shout "I am Back!" （我回来了！）. There is this belief that the Ming Tomb is the border between the mortal world and underworld, thus it is important for us to shout "I am Back!" so that our souls return to the mortal world with us.

On the 8th day, we visited the Tiananmen Square（天安门广场） and the Forbidden City（紫禁城）. The Tiananmen Square was our first stop before entering the Forbidden City main gate, and we witnessed for ourselves first-hand, the magnificence of the World's largest assembly square. However, the Tiananmen Square's history had its share of contemporary China's political history.

On 1st October 1949, Mao Tse Dong declared the birth of "New China"（新中国）at the top of the Forbidden City main gate to a huge audience gathered at the Tiananmen Square. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the Red Army assembled at the Tiananmen Square hailing Mao Tse Dong and his cultural movement.

After touring this huge assembly square, we "marched" our way to the Forbidden City main gate, a.k.a. Wu Men （午门）, and the next building we saw was Tai Ho Dian （太和殿）, the Imperial Court during the Ming Dynasty. The grandeur of this building is way beyond description, and this is just the beginning!




Tai Ho Dian

As we proceeded further, we came to the Ching "part" of the Forbidden City, the Ch'ien Ching Men （乾清门）. This section was built during the Ching Dynasty as their Imperial Court, and the name suggests court officials to "keep their mouths shut, and keep their ears open", mainly telling us the dangerous politics during those times.

After our Forbidden City visit, we proceeded to the Jing Shan Park (景山公园) a.k.a. Mei Shan（煤山）. This park is famous for a tree which the last Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chong Zhen（崇祯皇帝）, ashamed to face his ancestors for bringing down the empire, hanged himself at the tree.

We could also get a bird's eye view of the Forbidden City from the highest point of the park. Unfortunately, due to heavy fog, we could not get a clear view of the entire palace. It is said that during summer, the we could actually get the clearest view of the palace!

Bird's Eye View of the Forbidden City.

Finally, on the 9th day, we visited the Temple of Heaven（天坛）, located near our hotel. The Temple of Heaven has been the royal temple since the Ming era, and hence only suited by the Emperor himself to pray for prosperity and good harvest for the country every start of the lunar year.


Temple of Heaven Alter

In the Temple of Heaven park, there is also a Wall of Echo（回音壁）. The wonder of this wall is that it can reflect sound and send echoes ringing around it, if someone were to stand at the center and give a loud shout. Unfortunately, due to the large crowd at the Wall of Echo, we could not hear our echoes clearly.

The Wall of Echo

This entry was posted by Jaddam Hussien, on Sunday, January 13, 2008. You can leave your response.