So to recap part 1 we visited the great wall, a jade museum and saw some night life in Beijing. We carry on with the tour, still in Beijing to the Temple of Heaven, built in 1420 by Emperors of the Ming dynasty for the sole purpose of worshipping heaven, with magnificent gardens and majestic temples, knowing this level of design and architecture existed more than 600 years ago is absolutely astonishing.
Temple of Heaven
Wide view shot of the outer gardens
Next we move on to Tiananmen Square, the only entry to this historically significant icon is via an under pass as it is completed surrounded by roads and fencing. We pass squads of soldiers and police as we shuffle through the turn styles and are advised by our tour leader to not take photo's while passing through security check points. The amount of surveillance cameras in Tiananmen Square is a sight to see unto itself as every street light and high point on a building is covered in them. As we walk around, I can't help but feel being watched as traditional clad blue uniform Chinese 'citizens' nonchalantly watch your every move and seem to break away when you catch them looking only to be replaced by another from a different direction. Apart from a government officials building and a large tall monument, there's not much really to see but just the experience of being in such a contentious iconic place where people were basically massacred is sobering and the tension is palpable as the tour guides run the party line and no mention of the historic events are mentioned and any questions about it are ignored or cut off.
Tiananmen Square monument
Government Officials Building
Leading on from this is another cultural icon of China, The Forbidden city. Built in 1406 once again by the Ming dynasty, it served as the Emperors palace and governments seat of power for 500yrs. I got to say this place is huge and I mean massive, we spent over 4hrs there and still didn't see more than half of it. It features outer rings of defensive and lower level officials buildings, than gradually build inward into more ornate and complex buildings with gardens, retreats, bridges over moats and really just keeps going on and on. It is said there were 10,000 soldiers stationed here and there is more than enough room, that's how big this place is.
Wide view shot of the entrance to the Forbidden City
Outering structure
One of many bridges that cross defensive moats to act as bottlenecks
Ornate structure
Another courtyard that leads to yet another inner ring
That building in the distance is a watch tower and part of the Forbidden City
As you get closer to the centre the more ornate and luxurious it becomes with statues and retreats scattered throughout
A tranquil garden said to be for the use of the Emperor and his direct family
A place of solitude for members of the Emperors family
These trees are over 500 years old
After a long day of sight seeing we were all knackered and looking forward to heading back for a cold one but on the way back we were to do some more sight seeing, thankfully from comfy coach seats this time as the cities Olympic buildings were proudly shown off and you could here the pride in the tour leaders voice as they explained each structures architectural achievements and significance.
The Olympic Headquarters Building
The Olympic Flame Building
The Birds Nest Sports Centre
We finally made it back to the hotel and got our cold ones, we were going to rest well that night as everyone was out on their feet but the experience will live with me forever and although fairly crammed in was well worth the effort.
That concludes part 2 of our journey as the next day we would be up early to board a plane to Chengdu in the Sichuan province, home of the Chengdu Panda Base and Research Centre.
- Platypus-Dundee