Beijing also known as Peking is the capital of China. It has a 21.5 million population (2018) and is the second largest city in China to Shanghai. We had joined a bus tour in Beijing prior to heading Xi’an. With the bus tour, were able to visit the following sites: Great Wall, Ming Tomb, Forbidden City, Temple Heaven, Summer Palace, walking tour of Beijing Olympic Park.
Being fascinated with history, I enjoyed the scenic landmarks in Beijing. I had read the history when I was young on the Tienanmen Square massacre. Standing right there with thousands of tourists, gave me a perspective on how many people were actually there and the large space the square actually was. I had enjoyed visiting the Forbidden City which was the former Chinese Imperial Palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. The roofs were interesting as each were different and had mythical animals perched on each corner of the roof. Explanation was given that they were standing guard and intended for protection. The number of animals on the roof corners indicate the power of the one living below. Thus, the higher the number, the more powerful it is. The pavilion of the supreme harmony has the most mythical animals (10) guarding as it is the Palace of the Emperor.
Other notable favorites was the Summer Palace which was created in 1750, originally as the Emperor’s garden retreat in the Qing Dynasty. It was called Qingyi Garden at first, which was destroyed by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in the 1860s. In 1888, the Empress Cixi rebuild a similar garden, for luxury and pleasure in summer time, called it the Summer Palace.
What I found beautiful was the artwork in the long corridor. It is said that it is the longest corridor in Chinese classic gardens, stretching from east to the west, between the southern foot of Longevity Hill and parallel to Kunming Lake with a total of 728 meters in length. These artworks are hundreds of painted stories inside the Long Gallery, and the themes taken from historical figures, flowers, landscapes, and birds.
Overall, similar to my Xi’an blog post. My recommendations are to pay more and take a smaller tour or a private tour. Again, we were convince to join the inexpensive “shopping” tour and found that much of our time was spent at different shopping outlets such as tea shops, silk shops, medicine shops, jade shops. We spent much time at these outlets instead of enjoying the sites. An example, we only got 45 minutes to walk around Olympic Park. Being a competitive swimmer, I would have loved to have a quick swim at the Beijing National Aquatics Center (The Cube). The swim will have to wait and put on the to do list for a second Beijing trip.
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