Beijing, China 7/5 -- 7/10/2010 [Beijing Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

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The Third Day ...

• Hutong Tour (胡同)
  It was a cloudy day so it was much more comfortable to tour around Beijing today.  In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan (四合院), traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods 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 neighborhoods. Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

• Gong Wong Fu (Prince Gong's Mansion, 恭王府, 和珅舊宅)
  Prince Gong's Mansion was constructed in 1777 for minister He Shen (和珅) during the Qianlong (乾隆) reign. Because of being accused of corruption, He Shen was executed and the mansion was confiscated in 1799, under the reign of Emperor Jiaqing. In 1851, Emperor Xianfeng assigned it to his brother Prince Gong. It is his name that is currently given to the compound.  From 1920s to 1980s, it has been used for several different functions such as school and factory buildings.  Since November 1996 the buildings and the gardens have become a new publicly open scenic spot for tourists.
  One of the main problem to take pictures in such a tourist spot was how to avoid crowd and only get your family in the frame ....

• Beihai Park (北海公園)
  Beihai Park (Northern Sea), initially built in the 10th century, is an imperial garden to the northwest of the Forbidden City.  The guide particularly led us to the Nine-Dragon Wall in park.  It was built in 1756 and is one of three walls of its kind in China. It is made of glaze bricks of seven-colors with nine complete dragons playing in the clouds, decorating both sides of the wall.

• Yong He Gong, Lama Temple (雍和宮)
  Yong He Gong was built in 1694 as the residential palace of Prince Yin Zhen, the future Yongzheng Emperor (雍正). After Yongzheng's ascension to the throne in 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism, while the other half remained an imperial palace.  After Yongzheng's death in 1735, Qianlong (乾隆) Emperor, Yongzheng's successor, gave the temple imperial status signified by having its turquoise tiles replaced with yellow tiles which were reserved for the emperor. Subsequently, the monastery became a residence for large numbers of Tibetan Buddhist monks from Mongolia and Tibet, and so the Yonghe Lamasery became the national centre of Lama administration.  All the halls' names are written in four different languages (Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and Tibetan).

• China House, Tianjin (天津瓷房子)
  After lunch, it was about 2.5 hours bus ride to Tianjin.  Tianjin, one of four direct-controlled municipalities in China, is the sixth largest city of the People's Republic of China in terms of urban population (~ 12 million in 2009), and its urban land area ranks 5th in the nation, after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
  The China House, a century-old French-designed building, is embedded with more than 400 million ancient china pieces, 10,000 ancient vases, 5,000 ancient bowls, 500 porcelain pillows, 300 stone lions, 300 stone Buddhist statues and more than 20 tons of natural crystals.  But honestly I did not like it very much as I did not feel very comfortable with the porcelain pieces all over the walls and ceilings.

• Ancient Culture Street, Tianjin (天津文化街)
  Tianjin Ancient Cultural Street is designed as a place for tourists to experience Chinese folk custom, and as such, contains examples of nearly all the Tianjin local culture in one place. It is located on the west bank of the Haihe River, and was formally opened in 1986. It provides special architectural styles, classic cultural features, various folk crafts, and delicious local Tianjin snacks.  We found a craft store and bought tens of framed reed crafts (蘆葦手工藝品).

The Fourth Day ...

• We took an early train ride back to Beijing.  The high-speed train only took about 30 min between Tianjin and Beijing with the top speed faster than 330km/hr.
   

• Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan, 天壇)
  The Temple of Heaven, where the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties held the ceremonies of worshipping and praying for good harvests, was first built between 1406 and 1420 during the reign of Ming Emperor YongLe (永樂).  It is the largest and best-preserved ancient group of constructions for worship in the world; it is about two kilometers from north to south and covers approximately 2.75 square kilometers of area (more than twice the size of the Forbidden City). 
  The main Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) is 38 meters high without a single nailed used in its construction.  Inside the Hall are 28 tall pillars, each made from a single tree trunk. The four posts around the inner circle represent the four seasons. The 12 posts around the middle circle represent the 12 months. The 12 posts of the outer circle represent 12 Chinese Hours (ShiChen).

• National Center for the Performing Arts (國家大劇院)
  The Center, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake and colloquially described as The Egg, seats 5,452 people in three halls and is almost 12,000 m² in size.  We had a private tour to go inside the opera house and concert hall with detail introduction.  There was also a casual concert on the top level going on to introduce classical music to kids.  It was a cool visit to this modern place on such a hot day.

• Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall (北京規劃展覽館)
  The only interesting exhibit in this exhibition hall was a big room featuring a miniature model of the entire Beijing metropolitan area and we could use it to have a better idea where we had been for the last few days.

• Qianmen Street (前門大街)
   

  Located at the center of Beijing near Tiananmen Square, Qianmen Street, no more than 2 km long, has been a prosperous area for more than 600 years and has accumulated some long-standing stores.  It has been through a year long of renovation before the Olympic Games in 2008. We were tired and not very enthusiastic in street shopping, so we got into a McDonald's and took a snack break.

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