Saturday 28 April - For our first day in in Beijing we had planned to tour the highlights of this 20 million people city and after a late breakfast set off with our guide Lisa to visit the Temple of Heaven.
The first thing that strikes you is the air quality - somewhere up there is the sun ! It seems to be a combination of industrial smoke, car and bus fumes and dust from the Gobi desert to the north all of which mix together to form an orange haze.
Beijing - Northern Capital - has actually only been China's capital since the early 1400's when the third Ming Emperor moved the capital from Nanjing after a major building programme which lasted a number of years. With the completion of the Forbidden City in 1421 Beijing formally became the capital.
Struggling through the traffic we made it to the car park at the Temple of Heaven which is in fact a complex of 3 structures on a north-south axis. Seemingly the complex was only used 3 times a year at the spring and autumn solstices and the Emperors birthday when sacrifices were made to the gods to bring prosperity to the country.
From here we headed off to lunch which was a very busy local restaurant around the corner from our next stop Tinamen Square. Perhaps not surprisingly to get on to the square you need go through security screening which however was a bit notional for foreigners. The square was originally built as pat of the Ming Emperors plan for the new capital but significantly increased in size in the "New China" times.
From the somewhat bleak square surrounded by the National Museum and the Great Hall of the People and Mao's Mausoleum we headed to the highlight of the Forbidden City with its yellow tiled roofs signifying the fact it was the home of the Emperor. The palace complex has 4 gates each on the compass cardinal points and having paid our 60 RMB we headed through the South Gate and into the entrance courtyard featured in the "Last Emperor".
Dodging some of the crowds we headed to the left and made our way towards the Dowager Empresses courtyard which had some dusty furniture which you could see through the glass. Given China's turbulent history since the 1911 Revolution it is hard to say whether or not the Dowager Empress herself sat on the chairs but at least it gives an impression of what the Imperial Court must have been like.
The first thing that strikes you is the air quality - somewhere up there is the sun ! It seems to be a combination of industrial smoke, car and bus fumes and dust from the Gobi desert to the north all of which mix together to form an orange haze.
Beijing - Northern Capital - has actually only been China's capital since the early 1400's when the third Ming Emperor moved the capital from Nanjing after a major building programme which lasted a number of years. With the completion of the Forbidden City in 1421 Beijing formally became the capital.
Struggling through the traffic we made it to the car park at the Temple of Heaven which is in fact a complex of 3 structures on a north-south axis. Seemingly the complex was only used 3 times a year at the spring and autumn solstices and the Emperors birthday when sacrifices were made to the gods to bring prosperity to the country.
From here we headed off to lunch which was a very busy local restaurant around the corner from our next stop Tinamen Square. Perhaps not surprisingly to get on to the square you need go through security screening which however was a bit notional for foreigners. The square was originally built as pat of the Ming Emperors plan for the new capital but significantly increased in size in the "New China" times.
From the somewhat bleak square surrounded by the National Museum and the Great Hall of the People and Mao's Mausoleum we headed to the highlight of the Forbidden City with its yellow tiled roofs signifying the fact it was the home of the Emperor. The palace complex has 4 gates each on the compass cardinal points and having paid our 60 RMB we headed through the South Gate and into the entrance courtyard featured in the "Last Emperor".
Dodging some of the crowds we headed to the left and made our way towards the Dowager Empresses courtyard which had some dusty furniture which you could see through the glass. Given China's turbulent history since the 1911 Revolution it is hard to say whether or not the Dowager Empress herself sat on the chairs but at least it gives an impression of what the Imperial Court must have been like.