Chinese New Years in Beijing!- Part 3

THE FORBIDDEN CITY

This place is enormous and covers about 7,750,015 square feet! It has 9,999.5 rooms, as to not compete with the previously thought 10,000 rooms of Heaven. The moat surrounding the Forbidden City is almost 20 feet deep with standing protective walls of 33 feet in height. All of this was built in only 14 years as well! The project began in 1406 & if you can grasp it's size, this is an incredible feat. It was primarily used during the mid-Ming & Qing Dynasties. Remarkably, it remained the main politcal center until 1912.

Pathways to many other rooms.

The rock formations were left in a portion of this city.

The Forbidden City was completed in 1420, so it's continually being repaired.

One of the many concubine rooms.

A small portion of the Emperor's room.

After the crossing, another large gate.

Walking in the courtyard of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony was originally around 4,000 feet long. This photo was borrowed from Allen Timothy Chang located on this site.

This is the center slab of rock from the Hall of Supreme Harmony. This is the longest carving of it's kind in the Forbidden City.

Some of the buildings lying west of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

These are the same building to the west, yet taken from the deck of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Hey there... Viewing north from the deck.

This is the Meridian Gate which is the largest gate of the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Gate (wikipedia.org spelling) is the main entrance to the Forbidden City & also lies on the northern end of Tiananmen Square.

Chinese New Years in Beijing!- Part 2

MING TOMBS

Please visit here for more information on the Ming Tombs.

Zhu Di Emperor Yongle (1360- 1424 A.D.) ruled for 22 years & was the third emperor during the Ming Dynasty. This emperor was the first to choose this burial site & 13 emperors were buried in this area after his rule. He accomplished much for the country and was even in charge of building the imperial palace (Forbidden City).

Large wooden coffins were brought through this passageway shown in the foreground. While in the background, the Changling rises above. This is the burial mausoleum of Chengzu Zhu Li (same as above) & Empress Xushi.

We were told that the food, drinks & money were an offering to those who have descended from emperors long ago. Notice the police carefully watching, especially the bigger paper money that appears as leaves on the ground.

This is a sacred silk burner that was used after sacrificial rites. Other burners were used to burn food for their gods. With the nature of smoke rising to the sky, burning was a way to offer to the gods.

Before the mausoleum, stands this large wooden building made from cedar trees. The trees were shipped from eastern China during the Ming Dynasty. This process tooks months to transport & to this day, they no longer have any cedar trees for logging in the country.

This Soul Tower is a symbolic structure of the mausoleum. During the Ming Dynasty it was constructed of wood. At one time, a sacred steel was erected from the tower. Yet, in 1604 it was stuck & damaged by lightning. A year later it was rebuilt with the characters, "The Mausoleum of Emperor Chengzu," inscribed on the steel. When it was again reconstructed in the late 1700's the mausoleum was changed to stone.

Copper Vase Factory

We visited a copper vase factory which was very interesting. The factory guide showed us the lengthy process of how these beautiful vases are made.

Very lengthy handmade process to make something like this!

Pearl Shop

We also had the opportunity to learn about pearls from this demonstration.

Did you know it's common to have this many pearls in a shell? I certainly didn't. Nicole, thanks for letting me steal this picture from your website.

Typical Lunch & Dinner

Fish was served as one of the many sides for every lunch & dinner.

Houhai Lake Area

This Houhai area has many different restaurants & bars along the man-made lake.

Mike, myself, Amanda, Rebecca & Denis are all pretty excited to be in China!

Chinese New Years in Beijing!- Part 1

I've finally accomplished a goal of mine to make it to China! Especially after entertaining living in the country, I was at least able to visit one city. It just so happened to work out that it was the beginning of the Chinese New Year!!!

Rebbecca, Amanda & Denny getting ready for take-off! Denis & I happened to know these two Yeosu (small Korean coastal town) hooligan girls. We were glad to see them at the airport & with this tour group.

TEMPLE OF HEAVEN

First Day! Shortly after arriving, we were standing at the entrance to the Temple of Heaven. For more information, please visit wikipedia.org.

This is the Echo Wall Pavilion located south of the Hall of Annual Prayer, which was being restored.

Many emperors have stood on the center of this outdoor altar. This alter has 9 sections that stem from the center. The number 9 was very sacred & is used frequently in the Temple of Heaven. Even the stairs to climb to the alter are in sets of nine.

Go Team!

Here is where we had dinner for the first night.

Acrobatic Show!

After dinner, we saw an incredible acrobatic show.

Playing some pool, before experiencing the non-stop fireworks show outside. Everyone stoppped playing pool & watched us as we walked through this basement pool hall. We got the feeling, not too many foreigners make it here. Course, it was a pretty dark alley way prior to getting there.

Before the night even started, Beijing was coming alive with fireworks! It was the first time since 1993 that they were able to have fireworks. Perfect timing! There were fireworks everywhere you looked. I hope to eventually load a large video to show some aspect of how crazy the streets were. As shown in this picture above, these aren't your normal fireworks. Some in our group bought these packs which shoot about 15 large firework displays. These were common on almost every street! In this photo, some of the locals were helping find the wick to let this box come alive.

You could buy these loud banging fireworks on rolls. This man opened up the roll & hung it over a stick to make his version of a sparker. If you're within 10 feet of these things you can feel the debris hitting you, so it's no guess that he's getting pelted.

GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!

Detailed information of the wall.

The Great Wall is 3,948 miles (6,352 km) long! We hiked an extremely small portion of it called Badaling.

Beginning of the climb toward the top of this Badaling section.

This section has been reconstructed, but you can still see the wear over the years.

Rebecca takes a quick break for the camera.

Watchtower with a storage house and barracks in the background.

A group of us who made it to the top of the Great Wall!!!

Snow still on the ground in many parts.

We couldn't resist the chance to drink a beer on the wall. Now how often can you do that!

SUMMER PALACE

Detailed information on the Summer Palace.

After the Great Wall, we headed to the Summer Palace. It's the largest imperial garden in China & perhaps the world. Kunming Lake was pretty amazing in that the entire lake was frozen over. This man made lake was enlarged with the help of roughly 10,000 workers in the 1700's. The average depth is only about 1.5 meters & yet it covers 75% of the palace grounds. In this photo you can see all the people on the lake & that was only a small portion of all those on the ice. In the background, you can barely view the Tower of Buddhist Incense of Summer Palace (Foxiangge) . It appeared to be under reconstruction.

This structure, 17-Arch Bridge, connects the mainland to Nanhu Island.

Ancient style building on the eastern shore of the lake.

I was too far away to zoom in on the Jade Belt Bridge, so I used this photo from www.Beijingservice.com.