I am only in Beijing for a couple of days and the first full day was spent exploring the main attractions namely,
- Tiananmen Square
- The Forbidden City
- The Temple of Heaven
- The Summer Palace
Tiananmen Square of course brings pictures to your mind that are not necessarily top of the Chinese tourist board's "what shall we put on the postcard list", it was actually quite modest despite being the largest square in the world. There are a lot of impressive buildings on the edges, including the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao (where even at 8-30am there was an endless queue) and thankfully limited numbers of street sellers/tradesman.
From the square you enter the Forbidden City. Built in the 15th century, but updated over the years, it is a combination of buildings spread over 44 (? i really should remember these facts or at least have some idea on size) hectares, used by the various emperors, their wives, concubines, political appointments, soldiers,staff etc.... You get a real feel of scale and history in a country that was no doubt very different to modern day china.
After the city, we have time for an additional stop. Regardless of how friendly, intelligent, sophisticated etc. ... your guide, you know what this means......sales time. On this occasion its a silk factory, which just happens to have a shop as well. Normal set up, brief introduction into the silk worm and silk making process (this bit of the tour is always interesting) and then a gradual move into shop. Guide Amy promised it would not be hard sell, and to be fair it was just a constant soft sell (think 15 mins of tainted love on repeat shuffle and you get the picture) and eventually they worked out they should try their efforts on the next tour party through the door. The goods were all good quality - i have no idea whether good value or not, but i am not really a silk shirt, tie or pyjamas type of guy so they were always going to struggle. Not for the first time i looked at some really beautiful carpets and thought maybe,for a few seconds before remembering it would not fit size or style back home.
After this, off to The Temple of Heaven, a large park used daily for morning exercise, albeit when originally established it was used twice a year by the emperor for ceremonies. The temple itself was impressive, when we turned up around 11-30am the grounds had turned from an exercise area to a surreal "strictly" as local middle aged couples danced away to what i guess was Chinese mood music.
Final stop was the Summer Palace. The palace itself, a number of buildings scattered around, is not really the main attraction to this Unesco World Heritage site which has a stunning setting, including large lake, the longest art gallery in the world (the long corridor) and great backdrops.
Tomorrow off to Great Wall, heard that's quite good as well
ps according to wiki, forbidden city is 720,000 square metres, no idea what that is in hectares
- Tiananmen Square
- The Forbidden City
- The Temple of Heaven
- The Summer Palace
Tiananmen Square of course brings pictures to your mind that are not necessarily top of the Chinese tourist board's "what shall we put on the postcard list", it was actually quite modest despite being the largest square in the world. There are a lot of impressive buildings on the edges, including the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao (where even at 8-30am there was an endless queue) and thankfully limited numbers of street sellers/tradesman.
From the square you enter the Forbidden City. Built in the 15th century, but updated over the years, it is a combination of buildings spread over 44 (? i really should remember these facts or at least have some idea on size) hectares, used by the various emperors, their wives, concubines, political appointments, soldiers,staff etc.... You get a real feel of scale and history in a country that was no doubt very different to modern day china.
After the city, we have time for an additional stop. Regardless of how friendly, intelligent, sophisticated etc. ... your guide, you know what this means......sales time. On this occasion its a silk factory, which just happens to have a shop as well. Normal set up, brief introduction into the silk worm and silk making process (this bit of the tour is always interesting) and then a gradual move into shop. Guide Amy promised it would not be hard sell, and to be fair it was just a constant soft sell (think 15 mins of tainted love on repeat shuffle and you get the picture) and eventually they worked out they should try their efforts on the next tour party through the door. The goods were all good quality - i have no idea whether good value or not, but i am not really a silk shirt, tie or pyjamas type of guy so they were always going to struggle. Not for the first time i looked at some really beautiful carpets and thought maybe,for a few seconds before remembering it would not fit size or style back home.
After this, off to The Temple of Heaven, a large park used daily for morning exercise, albeit when originally established it was used twice a year by the emperor for ceremonies. The temple itself was impressive, when we turned up around 11-30am the grounds had turned from an exercise area to a surreal "strictly" as local middle aged couples danced away to what i guess was Chinese mood music.
Final stop was the Summer Palace. The palace itself, a number of buildings scattered around, is not really the main attraction to this Unesco World Heritage site which has a stunning setting, including large lake, the longest art gallery in the world (the long corridor) and great backdrops.
Tomorrow off to Great Wall, heard that's quite good as well
ps according to wiki, forbidden city is 720,000 square metres, no idea what that is in hectares
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A hectares is 10,000 square metres.
ReplyDeleteIn a more appropriate measure for this blog, a hectacre is approximately the size of a rugby pitch including the in-goal areas.