The Cube

Entrance to Beihai Park Another imperial garden! Actually, this was not in our itinerary, but we were walking towards a subway station to get to lunch place. From the map, we found out how the easiest and quickest way towards a subway station. What we didn't know was the route cut through a...

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Jingshan Park (translated as View or Prospect Hill) is an artificial hill immediately north of the Forbidden City. Jingshan Park has its origins in the Yuan dynasty. Its hill was created from earth that was excavated while building the palace moat in the Yongle Era. In the early years of the Ming dynasty,...

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Unlike the rest of attractions we visited prior to this, Ming Tomb only took half a day or so. So we had time to pay a visit to Yonghe Temple. This temple is easily accessable on subway line 2, and it is only a short walk away from the station. The entrance, I'm...

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This is the best preserved tomb area with the most emperors buried. As indicated by the name - here lie the mausoleums fof thirteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Emperors were exceptionally rich, so the mausoleums were widespread so don't imagine walking from one to the next. Only three were open to public,...

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Technically, this wasn't really in Beijing but it's easily done as a day trip away from Beijing so I'll leave it Beijing in the title :P Deciding to include Great Wall in the itinerary was the easy part. Then come the second part - which section to go? There are 4 sections that are...

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Shame this doesn't stitch up very well :( In ancient China, the Emperor of China was regarded as Son of Heaven, who represent and has heavenly authority. As respect to the source of his authority, the emperor prayed to the heaven in special ceremonies twice a year. Simply put, this whole complex was...

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