A Brief Of History
First of all, Beijing means The Capital of the North.
Beijing is of course the Capital of China, with nearly 21,500,000 inhabitants, Beijing is the second most populous city in the country behind Shanghai.
Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008 and the Winter Games in 2022.
Beijing has 91 universities.
Beijing is an exciting city where the modern meets the ancient.
The history of Beijing is far too long to tell, we would need a whole history lesson and that is not the purpose of this blog but here are the main points.
Its history goes back no less than 3000 years if we want to stick to the imperial periods.
Contrary to popular belief Beijing is the world capital of billionaires and also a world center for culture, business, education, science and technology.
The Language
In Beijing we speak Mandarin, unless you speak it it will not really help you but English is spoken in hotels and some other tourist places.
Pollution
It is said that the city of Beijing is so polluted that it is difficult to breathe and that you never see the sky, I must say that personally I had no problem and that we even had some sun. June is apparently a good month, because it was not too hot and not too humid.
Sleeping In Beijing
I personally stayed at the Chang An Grand Hotel.
I put the link below.
Very good hotel, very comfortable and with the best breakfast I have ever had in all my travels, with an endless choice, a buffet and they even cook you dishes to order.
Very good location, very close to Panjiao 2 metro station which is less than 500m away.
Chang’an Hotel (Shanxi Building) Price from reservation, telephone contact address (Ctrip Hotel)
Beijing Map
What To See
When you think of Beijing, you automatically think of Tai’an Men Square and the Forbidden City.
Tai’an Men Square known for the events of 1989, but also as the place where MAO proclaimed from the Ming Gate the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1st October 1949.
Ming Gate is located north of Tai’an Men Square across CHANG AN JIE Street.
The MING Door
But besides these events, Tai’an Men Square is a huge concrete square in the middle of modern Beijing, surrounded by communist-style buildings from the 1950s where you find the following sites.
- Zhengyang Men
- The Great hall of peoples
- The Monument of people s Heroes
- The National Museum of China
- The Mao‘s Mausoleum
The mausoleum of MAO is open for visits from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. (free) but bags, coats, cameras and cameras must be left in a building east of the mausoleum (paying).
The Tai’an Men Place
The size of Tai’an Men Square is impressive and far exceeds the largest American complexes, it is the largest square in the world and one of the most visited places in the world with the forbidden city, avoid weekends -ends.
To get there take metro line 1 or 2.
THE FORBIDDEN CITY
The Forbidden City is opposite (north) from Tai’an Men Square, just cross the main avenue.
The doors open at 8:30 but be there well before opening time because there are a lot of people, be sure that your camera or your camera is fully charged and provide a very good pair of walking shoe because the visit can last between 2h30 to 3 hours.
Here we go, let’s start the visit.
First of all there is the Ming gate which is not in the forbidden city but practically serves as a gateway.
The history of the forbidden city begins in 1420 and saw no less than 24 emperors over a period of 500 years, it was considered the heart of the city. Its size is absolutely impressive.
The architecture of the buildings is one of the most beautiful in China.
The palace was the exclusive domain of Chinese emperors and was the symbolic center of the Chinese universe until the abdication of the last emperor Aisin Gioro Pu Yi on February 12, 1912,
The palace has been open to the public since 1949.
We will begin our visit from the outer courtyard, where the Meridian Gate (ZU MEN) is located, from the balconies of this gate the emperor could review his troops and observe the ceremonies celebrating the new year.
By crossing this door, you arrive in the first court where you have in front of you 5 magnificent bridges carved in marble.
These 5 marble bridges symbolize the 5 values of Confucianism.
Loyalty (xin)
Wisdom (whi)
Decency (li)
Righteousness (yi)
Benevolence (ren)
They cross a river that the Chinese have nicknamed the Golden River which crosses the site from West to East, so that it looks like the jade belt worn by the officials.
Once you have crossed the bridges, you will have in front of you a 24 meter high gate which is the Gate of Supreme Harmony, originally used for the reception of visitors and also for banquets during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).
On each side of the stairs leading to the door, you have 2 lion sculptures who guard the building, the male is represented with a ball and the female with a lion cub.
The Gate Of Supreme Harmony
Once past the Gate of Supreme Harmony, there is a huge court that takes us to the top of a sublime staircase with the Imperial Sundial and the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
On each side of the staircase there are copper cauldrons that were filled with water in case of fire.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest building in the Forbidden City, it was used for very important occasions like the coronation of the emperor, you can also admire a throne inside and also a magnificent very colorful ceiling.
On its roof there are sculptures called guardians, they are odd in number and associated with water, they were there to protect the building from fires.
Why an odd number?
In China an odd number represents the Yang, the male element associated with the emperor, the ultimate number is 9, it is said that there would be 9999 pieces in the forbidden city, is that 9×9 is a number which brings luck, on the doors used for the imperial palaces, there are in general 81 copper nails.
The Hall Of Supreme Harmony
After the hall of supreme harmony there is the hall of central harmony which received the emperor before the official ceremonies.
The Hall of Central Harmony
The next building is the Hall of Preserved Harmony with again bronze cauldrons still in case of fire.
And finally to the very north there is the Gate of Heavenly Purity building.
Around this last part there are also various palaces, gardens and streets.
The Pavilion of the thousand-autumns of the Imperial Gardens
In the streets of beijing
Walking through the streets of Beijing is also very instructive, you can discover interesting things, like for example the Hutongs of Beijing which are alleys of ancient Beijing with traditional houses, personally I like to get off the tourist trail.
The Lotus Market
The Lotus Market is located west of Shichahai and it is the perfect place to see the Lotus Lake, which was named like this because in summer the lake is filled with lotus flowers.< /p>
On the banks of the lake you will also find an old market dating from the middle of the 19th century and also the famous Hutongs of Beijing, the Hutongs of Beijing, antique shops, cafes and restaurants.
To get to the lotus market, take subway line 6 and exit at Beihai North and walk east for about 500m.
The Temple of paradise
The Temple of Heaven is an imperial complex of religious buildings, it is located in the southeast of central Beijing. (See on the map above)
Modern Beijing
Eating in Beijing
Many consider northern Chinese cuisine as an aristocratic cuisine, in general the cuisine of the Beijing area is not very spicy.
Since northern China is particularly dry, rice is not the basic grain but rather wheat and millet. This translates into many hot or cold noodle dishes, Chinese dumplings which are the origin of Italian dumplings, and also Chinese thick pancakes.
The Mongols influenced the cuisine of northern China by importing the dish known as Chinese hot pot (Mongolian hot pot) which consists of dipping small pieces of meat and vegetables.
Of course there is also the famous Pekin duck.
There are many restaurants in Beijing, but the most interesting for me was the night market. On the other hand, you have to be adventurous when it comes to food, because you can also find scorpions, silkworms, crayfish, octopus, starfish, centipedes, etc.
Personally, I tasted scorpions, slipper lobster, octopus, silkworms.
My favorites are first of all the silkworms which have a particular but excellent taste, a little bitter very crispy and also very nutritious, the scorpions are a little more neutral in taste but very crispy, it’s more for the texture than for the taste.
The night market
The Olympic site
The Beijing Olympic site is better known as the nest, due to the architecture of its stadium built in the shape of a nest.
