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Beijing
Abbreviation: Jing Area: 16,800 square km Population: 11 million The Emperors Palace China’s most exalted annex, the emperor’s Palace, is a creation of the Ming era (built between 1406 AD – 1420AD). The grandeur of the red walls and the yellow “sea of roofs” glooms especially impressive in the sunshine. This location not only was the home of an earthly power but at the same time a holy shrine, a nexus of the cosmos with the worldly vicegerents. Temple of Heaven With six altars spread around the palace city, testified the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties with strict rites and in the rhythm of the seasons their humbleness and pleaded with sacrifices for heavenly mercy. Every year, during the time of the winter solstice, the emperor functioning as a surrogate personified “heavenly son”, pleaded for a good harvests while he made sacrifices.
Ming Tombs
The Ming tombs are located on the base of Tianshou Mountain, closely located at the suburb of Changping, about 50 km north-westerly of Beijing. The Ming Tombs represent actually an imperial mausoleum for all 13 Emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). The whole annex is a gigantic court and spread over an area of 120 qkm. The tombs of this 13 Ming Emperors appear majestic and grand, from which the Changling, grave of the 3rd Ming Emperor Zhu Di is very likely the most beautiful with the great palace hall Lingendian, resembling the Hall of the Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City. It is said, it took 1.000 workers, 5 years of hard labour to bring all the necessary wood to built this hall.
The Great Wall The majestic Great Wall of China is the world’s largest old military defence wall and is listed as a World Heritage site by the UNESCO since 1987. The starting point of the Great Wall is at the Shanhaiguan Pass in the Province of Liaoning and the Wall ends at the Jiayuguan Pass in the Province of Gansu. The unbelievable course of the Wall stretches over steep mountains, passes through valleys, crossing even the Gobi Desert in northern China from east to west. According to historical documents the time span for the construction of the Great Wall lasted from spring of 770 B. C. Until autumn in the year 476 B.C.
After unification of the Empire by Emperor Qin, China was founded as a whole. The first Emperor Qin Shihuandi was the founder of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC). To defend his empire against attacks by nomads from the north, the emperor ordered Meng Tian, a well known Qin General, to connect all parts of an already existing, but partly adjourned, Great Wall and to extend it. The old Qin Wall has meanwhile a more than 2.000 years old history. In the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD as well as during the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644) the Great Wall was twice extended and fortified. Today’s Great Wall in Beijing dates back to the Ming Dynasty. Examples of the structure can be visited in Badaling, Mutianyu, Jinshanling, Simatai, Huanghuacheng, Jiankou etc. The Great Wall at Badaling is perfectly preserved and hence first choice as a tourist destination. A Chinese proverb states: “A man who has not been at the Great Wall is not a real man after all”. The Great Wall is “THE” symbol of China, the spirit of the nation and the pride of Chinese people.
The Summer Residence The summer residence, located in the north-westerly suburbs of Beijing, is the best preserved museum of imperial garden architecture in China. Originally this complex imperial garden was created in the year 1750, also in the later time of the Qing Dynasty (1368 – 1644). As in almost all of Chinese garden architecture the design of the summer palace is borrowed from nature. Little mountains and varieties of palace buildings, bridge constructions, pavilions, the pagoda and other garden buildings represent a wonderful paradise. The Yuanming Palace The great aesthete, Qing Emporer Qianlong, who ruled from 1736 – 1795, created in the northwest of Beijing a gigantic, architectonic landscape work of art, the old summer palace or how Chinese say, the Garden of “Perfect Purity”. Highlights of this opulent annex were western style built palaces, designed by schemes of the Italian Jesuit Castiglione, in the style of European paradigms for instance the Chateau of Versailles.
Lamatempel Beijing’s most beautiful temple is still a lama monastery inhibited by monks in the northern section of the second circular road. Emperor Qianlong, favouring the “Yellow Hat School” ordered to convert the palace of the prince to a Tibetan-Mongol convent in the year 1745, to manifest the close ties between the Chinese imperial court and the vassals.
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