A 12-member media delegation from Sarawak recently visited five cities in China (Beijing, Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Kunming and Dali) from June 11 to 26. In this second installment of articles on this tour Lim How Pim recounts her personal experience of visiting the historical sites of Beijing.
Climbers are seen carrying umbrellas at the beginning stretch of the Juyongguan Great Wall.
The Great Wall
‘He who does not reach the Great Wall is not a true man’ is the line that will not slip the mind of those who have climbed the Wall.
I decided to be honest with you all that I climbed but only 20 or so steps up the Juyong Pass Great Wall.
My spirit to go further up was dampened by the unwanted downpour. I had to console myself ‘It’s okay. You don’t want to push yourself’ but other climbers who braved the heavy rain made me feel sorry for myself.
Together with a couple of other delegates, we ended up sipping flower tea and other beverages at a souvenir shop while waiting for a handful of us to complete their climb.
On board the coach, Zhang Bin our tour guide said the construction of the Great Wall began in the Qin Dynasty some 2,000 years ago.
Listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall was built at such a heavy human cost that it is sometimes referred to as ‘The longest graveyard’ in the world because those who died building the wall were buried there instead of being transported home.
It was said that one-fifth of the population then were involved in the construction of the Great Wall.
When the Great Wall was first completed, it stretched about 5,000km.
However, after it was built there was long period of peace in China and the emperors during the Tang and Yuan dynasties did not pay much attention in maintaing it and it fell into disrepair.
“When Zhu Yuan Zhang, Emperor of Ming Dynasty relocated the capital city to Nanjing, he realised the importance of the Great Wall as a solid defence against intrusion and started to reinforce the Wall,” explained Zhang.
The length of the Wall increased to 6,300km following the reinforcement.
What climbers see today is the Great Wall of at least 500 years instead of the original Wall which is too fragile and dangerous to climb.
Only four stretches of the Great Wall are open to visitors. They are Simatai Great Wall, Jinshanling Great Wall, Badaling Great Wall and Juyongguan Great Wall.
Of these, Badaling and Juyongguan are the top choices.
The Bird’s Nest a legacy of the 2008 Olympics
When Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics in 2022 it will be the first city to have hosted both summer and winter Olympics as it hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008.
The Bird’s Nest stadium in the Olympics Park built to host that Games has now emerged a tourist attraction.
Adjacent to the Bird’s Nest is the uniquely designed Aquatics Centre where the most decorated Olympian of all time American swimmer Michael Phelps won all the events he took part in. Dubbed the flying fish, Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Temple of Heaven
This is where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties used to offer sacrifices to pray for fine weather and good harvests. The Temple of Heaven is divided into an inner part and an outer part, covering an area of 273 hectares.
It includes the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Circular Mound, the Long Corridor and the Abstinence Palace which served as a residence for the emperors before the rituals.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is one of a kind as it is the only structure in the whole of China which is entirely made of wood. It is so ancient that even the nails and connecting parts are of wooden materials. Visitors are only allowed outside the hall as a means of preserving the ancient wooden block.
Built in 1420, the original hall which is rectangular in shape was first named the Great Hall for Sacrificial Rituals used to worship both Earth and Heaven.
It was then rebuilt into a round hall with a tripled-gabled roof, each covered with blue, yellow and green glazed tiles.
The hall is supported by immense pillars, symbolising the four seasons, 12 months of the year, the 12 time divisions of the day and night and all the constellations.
The Circular Mound was built in 1530 to serve as a place to hold the ceremony for worshipping Heaven during the winter solstice every year.
As the surface of the uppermost terrace of the Circular Mound is paved with nine concentric rings of stone slabs, the round stone slab in the centre is called the Heavenly Centre Stone.
The Heavenly Centre Stone is surrounded by nine stones in the first ring, 18 in the second, up to 81 in the ninth ring, symbolising the ‘Nine Heavens’.
It is said that if you speak standing on the Heavenly Centre Stone, your voice will be particularly resonant and sonorous. Countless people took turns to pose on the Heavenly Centre Stone.
Before making it to the hall, we strolled past the Long Corridor of 293 metres. Adjacent to the corridor is an open space where Zhang said many people relaxed and parents mingled to fix up meetings for their children.
“Many parents would gather here to arrange matchmakings for their children who are too busy for boyfriends and girlfriends. Hence, parents whose children are still single usually hang out here,” quipped Zhang.
In ancient days, lanterns lit up the corridor, which was used for transporting offerings including jade, silk, grains and fruits to the altars on the eve of sacrificial ceremonies.
These days, senior citizens and middle-aged people play cards and Chinese chess along the corridor.
Tiananmen Square
It is largest city square in the world with a capacity for one million people.
The body of Mao Zedong is interred at a mausoleum in the square.
Chairman Mao died in 1976. According to Zhang, Chairman Mao’s body is covered in the Communist Party’s flag. Many people paid their respects to Chairman Mao in the chamber, which is guarded by men.
Palace Museum (The Forbidden City)
From Tiananmen Square, we took a stroll through an underground pedestrian way to reach the Palace Museum. Before this tourist attraction was open to visitors in 1925, it was named The Forbidden City.
The average number of visitors at the Palace Museum is 50,000 per day.
The Chinese government has recently limited the number of visitors to 80,000 per day. Zhang said the Palace Museum once received 180,000 people a day.
Between 1421 and 1911 24 emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties resided in this palace.
It is said that it took 14 years to complete the construction of The Forbidden City. In ancient time, Zhang said there were 9,999 rooms within The Forbidden City. Today, some 8,700 rooms remain while the rest were either destroyed in the fire or too dilapidated for restoration.
It is said that 2.4 million artifacts were discovered from The Forbidden City. Of the number, 600,000 are presently exhibited in the Palace Museum in Taipei.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, officials had to go through three gates before they could proceed with meeting the emperor.
One of the gates is Wumen (Meridian Gate) which is 38 metres tall and comes with three passages.
The central passage was reserved for the emperor while the empress was permitted to pass through once in her life time, which was on her wedding day.
The Forbidden City consists of three major halls – the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe dian), the Hall of Central Harmony (Zhonghe dian) and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohe dian), which made up the Outer Court where the emperor held grand ceremonies.
The Inner Court, which includes the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing gong), the Hall of Union (Jiaotai dian) and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility (Kunning gong), was where the emperor dealt with routine government affairs and lived with his empress and concubines.
In the past sundial (Rigui) was used to tell the time. The sundial was used to measure the shadow cast by the sun.
Placing a sundial in front of the palace symbolised that the emperor had the supreme power to grant time to all the people in the country.
The northern gate of the Forbidden City is the Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwu men). Serving as the rear gate of the imperial palace, Shenwu men was the passage for young girls from certain social groups to present themselves for selection of the imperial harem during the Qing dynasty.
After the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Forbidden City ceased to be the imperial palace.
However, the last emperor Puyi and his family continued to live in the Inner Court until 1924. In 1987, Palace Museum made it to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Summer Palace
In 1998, UNESCO included this tourist destination on its World Heritage List after declaring it ‘a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.’
UNESCO further declared: ‘The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value.’
Zhang said Summer Palace was where the emperor spent the summer between April and October every year.
Inside the imperial palace included living quarters for the emperor and the empress.