Beijing: Beihai Park (北海公园, Běihǎi Gōngyuán)

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 garden, and being a garden in Beijing, we need to pay even if we are just passing through. A detour would take up more time and we didn't want to risk reaching the restaurant at the peak of lunching hour as we did not make any reservation. So we gladly paid up the entrance fee of RMB 5 (per person).

You must be thinking what's with this restaurant that we had to get to. Oh well, we were pretty determined to have Manchu cuisine and this was our last chance before leaving Beijing. :)

So back to this garden that we paid for passing through, it was Bei Hai Park - an imperial garden for more than 1,000 years. It was associated with Kublai Khan, who redesigned it during the Mongol Yuan dynasty.

This park is named after its extensive lake, Bei Hai. The obvious landmark of Bei Hai Park is a white Dagoba, a Tibetan-style stupa built to honour the vist of the fifth Dalai Lama in 1651.

Side note: I could do with onsen now...

Beijing: Jingshan Park (景山公園, Jǐngshān)

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, the park was known as Wansui Shan (Long Life Hill), but renamed as Jing Shan in the Qing era.

Wanchun Pavilion (万春亭, Wanchun Ting)

Back in the old days, this park was an imperial garden. It also served as feng shui purpose, protecting the Forbidden City from destruction and death. Feng shui probably ran its course (but am sure there are logical arguments) as the last Ming emperor, emperor Chongzhen hanged himself from a tree in this park when rebel troops forced their way to Beijing.

This was totally understandable why this park was restricted to imperial use, considering one can totally spy on the Forbidden City from here, specifically from Wanchun Ting.

One could combined a visit to Jingsan Park with Forbidden City as these two attractions are located close to each other. We didn't as we finished our visit in Forbidden City rather late, so this was done in the morning of another day.

Ya ya, still in the park

We found a tree with blossoming flowers!

It is now open to public, but with a small entrance fee. It appears that all parks charges an entrance fee, I've even seen a counter booth selling annual fee on another park. We were there on a Saturday morning, and had a glimpse of how locals enjoyed their weekend morning. ^ ^

Calligraphy in water



Jianzi game for adults

Skipping rope for kids

Dancing for the ladies

One last one, not in Jingshan park itself but on the bus towards Jingshan Park.

Open air barber

Side note: Code Blue was addictive!

Beijing: Yonghe Temple (雍和宮, Yōng hé gōng)

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 not too about those electronic board, it's not very becoming, isn't it?

It is initially built in the Qing Dynasty, as the residence of Emperor Yongzheng when he was a prince. After his ascension to the throne, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The balance half remained as an imperial palace.

After Emperor Yongzheng's death, his successor, also his son, Emperor Qianlong gave the temple imperial status. With this, its turquoise tiles were replaced with yellow tiles that were reserved for emperors. Subsequently, the monastery became a lamasery and residence for many Tibetan Buddhist monks from Mongolia and Tibet.
Edit 28/05/13 - sis said the reason the roof tiles were changed to yellow tiles due to Emperor Yongzheng's coffin was placed in this temple before buried in Western Qing Tombs (清西陵, Qīng Xī Líng).

Usually we got an audio guide each but I decided to give this one a skip, and sis to tell me the story thereafter. According to sis, the information on audio guide were mostly after it has converted to lamasery, not much on its previous status as Prince Yinzhen's residence.



Zoom in



According to the audio guide, by turning this residence to lamasery built rapport among Mongolians, Tibetians and the Manchus, in addition this would ensure the residence being well kept as well. Win win situation eh.

At both sides of the main hall, Yonghegong (Hall of Harmony and Peace), one can find West and East Stele Pavilion (八角碑亭). Inside the pavilions respectively erect a 6 metre high stone tablet engraved with inscriptions of Yonghegong in Manchu, Han, Tibetan and Mongolian languages. East Stele - Manchurian and Han, Tibetan and Mongolian languages on the West Stele Pavilion.



This comes in 4 languages - Mongolian, Tibetan, Chinese and Manchurian (Not sure I get the order correctly though)
Edit: 28/05/13 - sis said it should read from right to left, so should be Manchurian, Chinese, Tibetan and Mongolian :)

The hall north of Yonghegong is Yongyoudian (永佑殿). This hall also translated as Hall of Everlasting Protection and used to be Prince Yinzhen's bed chamber.

Further north is Falundian (法轮殿) and Wanfu Pavilion (万福阁). Falundian was formerly the dwelling of the Emperor's wives. Wanfu Pavilion on the other hand, easily recognized as it has three storey.

Falundian



Wanfu Pavilion

Side note: Craving for a hearty chicken pie!

Beijing: Ming Dynasty Tombs (明十三陵, Míng shísān líng)

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, Changling Tomb (長陵), Dingling Tomb (定陵) and Zhaoling (昭陵) Tomb.

I still don't quite comprehend as to the different names, one emperor had his given name, then the name when he became an emperor, and now the tomb has a different reference.

Anyway, Changling Tomb was the mausoleum for the third Emperor of Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu Di and his Empress Xu. It is the largest and best preserved among all the tombs.

Dingling Tomb is the mausoleum of Emperor Zhu Yizhun, the 13th emperor with his two empresses. The highlight of this tomb is the stone Underground Palace. When Emperor Zhu Yizhun ascended the throne, he took the name Emperor Wanli (萬曆). His temple name was Míng Shénzōng (明神宗)

Long story short, Emperor Wanli was not interested in state affair, he indulged himself in a life of luxury and extravagant spending of the empire's coffers.

The last one open to the public is Zhaoling Tomb, where the 12th emperor, Emperor Zhu Zaihou and his three empresses were buried.

Most would probably combine a tour with Badaling Great Wall but since we went to Mutianyu, we visited this Ming Tomb the next day. Out of the three, we went to Dingling Tomb, as it has an underground palace, compared to the other two.

Memorial stele carried on the back of the traditional tortoise shaped animal

We set out after grabbing breakkie, which was mantou that we saw on the way to the train station. There were four of different shapes mantou on sale, and I thought they were smallish in size and just bought one of each. Bad decision. It was bland and big, and the worse was, there were four ot them. Umm. At one point, I asked sis if I could offer them to the emperor as prayer offering, after all, we were visiting a mausoleum and only a couple of days before Qingming Day. After all, I was told by mom that we could visit graves ten days before and after Qingming Day. Anyway, I didn't leave any mantou, not because I had finished eating them but sis solemnly told me that it might not sit very well with either the emperor or whoever is taking care of the place.

Lingxingmen - Double Pillar Gate

See the gate where people were coming through? We heard one of the tour guides telling her tour members that one have to march on spot three steps, and shout, "我回来了 (I've come back)". Apparently it was to inform that one has return from visiting the tombs. I don't know what are the consequences if omit this step but we follow suit after visiting the tomb, just in case... :P

Edit: Sis said the purpose of saying, ""我回来了 (I've come back)" is in case we leave our spirits there.

Sacrificial stone vessels with Soul Tower in the background

According to the information sign at the side, these are Five Stone Sacrificial Vessels (石五供). They are symbolic sacrificial utensils, one incense burner, two candlesticks, and two vases on the sacrificial altar. They were designed to create a commemorative atmosphere at the tomb.

See the Soul Tower (明楼) at the background? It was a symbolic structure of the mausoleum. A sacred stele was erected inside the tower.


Click to see larger, it is not a very clear inscription

At the top of the stele, engraved two characters "Da Ming" which mean Great Ming, the remaining engraved characters on the surface are "the Mausoleum of Emperor Shenzong" (Emperor Shenzong is Emperor Wanli aka Emperor Zhu Yizhun's temple name)

There was a security check before entering the tomb itself. I took very few photos, in particular none of the coffin, but here's a couple of the very few.

The Emperor's throne

Diamond wall entrance

Marble door

A very significant tablet, called DirectionTablet was found that led to finding of this tomb.

On the center of this tablet, engraved with 16 Chinese characters literally meaning, "From this stone to the front of the Diamond Wall, it is 16 zhang long and 3 zhang and 5 chi deep." The Diamond Wall was the entrance to the Underground Palace.

Apparently the initial workers forgot to remove this Direction Tablet when the tomb was sealed. The archeologist followed the direction on this tablet and found Dingling Tomb. This tablet is no longer at it's original location but moved to one of the Exhibition Hall as a display.

We took bus no 872 to Dingling from Deshengmen (德胜门). If you end up taking a public bus from Deshengmen, do check out the grilled lamb shop near the train station. It was absolutely delicious, wish I am eating one now!

RMB 3 for one or RMB 5 for 2

Totally delish

Side note: Cold weather making me feel like eating and sleeping all the time = ="

Beijing: Mutianyu Great Wall (慕田峪长城, Mùtiányù Chángchéng)

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 close enough to do as a day trip from Beijing.

1. Badaling (八达岭)
2. Mutianyu (慕田峪)
3. Huanghua Cheng (黄花城)
4. Simatai (司马台)

Badaling gave me the impression that every tour group that goes to Great Wall, goes to Badaling. Don't get me wrong, by all means Badaling could be a scenic place just I am just not too keen to rub shoulders with every tour group member while I was panting like a doggie trekking up the Great Wall.

I kid you not, every pamplets we came across that goes to Great Wall, goes to this section of the Great Wall. That being said, Little P had been to Badaling and reported that if you trek far enough, you would enjoy a little peace and break away from the crowd. After all, not all tour group gave the luxury of trekking leisurely for a couple of hours. Besides, one could combined the trip with 13 Tombs of Ming Dynasty. So there you go, don't me let scare you into avoiding Badaling :P

Thus far I have not know or heard anyone personally gone to Huanghua Cheng, so I can't comment much. As for Simatai, initially I wanted to suggest to sis to try going to Simatai but this section is probably the furthest away from Beijing, about 2 1/2 hours away. The famous trek is the one from Jinshanling to Simatai. However as of our travel, I heard it was closed for restoration, could still be close though.

In the end, we chose Mutianyu. According to this website, there is a Tourism Bus No 867 from Dongzhimen Outer that goes to Mutianyu directly at 7 am and 8.30 am. We overslept and that morning was the only morning that we woke up, got ready and left the hostel in a flash! However by the time we reached Dongzhimen Transport Hub, it was close to 8.30am, besides we weren't sure if Tourism Bus No 867 has started running as it is said to be only available from late March to November 15th. We were there in late March but how late is late?

We headed straight to Dongzhimen Transport Hub and took Bus 916快 (express line) towards Huairou Bus Station (怀柔汽车站). It only cost us CNY 4.40 after 60% discount with Beijing Transportation Smart Card. We got off Huairou Bei Dajie (怀柔北大街). As the bus traveled closer towards Huairou, there would be touts poking their head inside the bus at each bus stops and asked if any one going to Mutianyu. At one point, I almost wavered on the information I found online and wanted to get off but luckily sis was firm that we should trust the information that we found.

Right after the bus took off, we overheard other passengers (locals) talking amongst themselves that if we had got off the bus, we would've been fleeced. I came to realise that they would not voice out at that time but would probably make some comments thereafter, maybe this is to save face of the other party?

After getting off the bus, then comes the tricky part. According to this website, to hire a mini-bus to Mutianyu. I wouldn't call that a mini-bus, it looked every inch a van, a private van too. I am terrible at haggling, we ended up paying CNY 160 for a return trip, with about 4 hours waiting time. (We traveled on 28th March 2013). From here, it said that one way trip with a private taxi is about CNY 60. So, this part is where you put your best haggling skills to use.

There are cable car, chair lift and toboggan services available in Mutianyu. However I think one can also walk up to the wall section from parking lot area as we walked parts of the trail down.

We had another blond moment. We were looking at a broucher clearly showing cable car but we blindly bought a return ticket for chair lift-tobaggan. Return tickets for cable car is CNY 80 according to it's website, the same for chair life-tobaggan but cableway-tobaggan only CNY 60. Chairlift and tobaggan was near to each other, but cable car station will bring you higher up comparatively.
So if you take the cable car up and down via chairlift or tobaggan, there should be more downhill parts to your walk.

Anyway, since we had paid for chairlift/tobaggan return tickets, we went up via chairlift. Umm.. that was the first time I took any chairlift. Sorry no pictures from chairlift as I was too worry to have any major movements. My camera was still in my backpack then and I didn't think it was a smart move grab it off my backpack in the midst of the chairlift.



There were snow in Mutianyu at the end of March!

We turned right and walked till a warning sign indicating that it was dangerous to proceed further. Then we retraced our steps and walked passed the chairlift station towards the cable car station.
By this time we realised we could not use the tobaggan ticket at the cable car station. Honestly, I am a bit of a wuss and was rather scared to take the tobaggan. I blame it on my good imagination of things :P

Only at the very end of our walk we decided to go ahead for the tobaggan. I had a feeling that we were the only two that we not thrill about this tobaggan ride thing. Everybody else looked super excited and we looked worried. LOL.

Anyway, glad we did it and not forfeit the tickets. In fact at one section of it, one of the person on duty along the slide shouted to me, "太快了!" (too fast), indicating that I should slow down. You can control the speed the descent on the tobaggan yourself.

Here's a couple more photos, since I have after all, gone on a more uphill route :P

1, 2, 3 up... again, 1, 2, 3 up.

We were lucky, the weather was great!

Smog? What smog? :P

Feels like a castle eh?

Side note: Wish there's a Kinokuniya in Melbourne!

Beijing: Temple of Heaven (天坛, Tiāntán)

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 constructed for the Emperor of China to worship the God of Heaven and pray for good harvest.

It's probably as forbidden as Forbidden City, if not more. After all only the Emperor and his entourage will travel from Forbidden city to this complex, abstained from eating meat and prayed.
As this is to pray to the Heaven, the 'source' of the emperors authority, this complex, of course has to be even larger than where the emperor stayed (Forbidden City).

We travelled from Tiananmen Square via subway, so we came in through the east gate.
We got the combination ticket, CNY 30 and also paid for the additional fees to enter Hall of Ceremonial Music and Fasting Palace (or Hall of Abstinence) of CNY 10.

The three main buildings in the complex are:

Circular Mound Altar (圜丘坛, Yuán Qiū Tán)



This was where the emperors would offer sacrifice to heaven on Winter Solstice yearly.

Apparently in ancient days, they believed that Earth was square and Heaven was round. Therefore this circular altar was surrounded by a square wall to represent this.

Circular Mound Altar took the figure 9 to a whole new level. No joke.

• This altar comprises of three layers, the steps to each levels were carefully planned to be 9 steps. 
• The upper layer consists of fan-shaped stones, forming a total of 9 circles. 
• The innermost circle has 9 stones
• 9 pieces of stone were added progressively to every circle to the outside

You can count this.. 9 steps

No.. this wasn't showing the whole 9 circles, you can stop counting

See the single stone right in the middle? That was Heaven Heart Stone aka Sun Stone. Apparently if you stand on it and shout or knock, the sound waves will be clearly echoed. I had some difficulties to get my chance on standing on the stone, let alone shout or knock. So I can't testify to the echo.

Besides, there was so many people around, the echo probably wouldn't work, as well as I wasn't going to risk people thinking I was mad or shouting randomly.

Imperial Vault of Heaven (皇穹宇, Huangqiongyu)

This building was the place to house God's tablets to be used at Ceremony of Worshipping Heaven.

See the roof? All the buildings within Temple of Heaven have special dark blue roof tiles, said to represent the Heaven. I didn't think that far, I just think the blue roof is just so beautiful :)
(Ru, I love roof details too, they are awesome!)

Surrounding this building, is the famous Echo Wall that could passed sound waves smoothly if you whisper at one end of the wall. There's also no way to check this out now, due to the same reason, the crowd, also there is now a barrier to avoid people from touching the wall. LOL

This Imperial Vault and Alter of Prayer (below) is connected by a bridge named Vermilion Steps Bridge, a 360 metres long walkway. The slightly elevated pathway in the middle, was reserved especially for the emperor.

Of course I walked on the elevated walkway, just because... :P

Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿, Qiniandian)

This is a big palace with three layers of eaves, the entrance is barred. This was where the emperor held the worship ceremonies to pray for good weather and abundant harvest. There were scheduled free guide at pre-fixed time, from memory at interval of 30 minutes.

This brilliant building was completely wooden and no nails were used. Being wood, unfortunately original building was burned down by a fire caused by lightning in 1889. This current one was re-built several yearse after the incident.

Fasting Palace (斋宫, Zhaigong)

We paid additional CNY 10 for entrance to this palace. There's a Bell Tower, Beamless Hall (无梁殿, Wuliang Dian), Bedroom Hall and Room of Prince within this area. This was where the emperor stayed for three days before the formal worshipping ceremony. The emperor would live alone, eat simple vegetarian meals, abstinent from wine and without entertainment for the three days.

Beamless Hall

Despite I think the ancient Chinese were very good in giving poetic name to the buildings and scenic places, this is what it is - Beamless Hall. The hall is supported by a brick dome without any beams.

That placard board in is Emperor Qianlong's handwriting :)

Tiantan overall is much quieter comparatively to Forbidden City. I am not sure if this has anything to do with our visiting time or it just is. This Fasting Palace is even quieter, I think we have only met 3 or 4 visitors in this area. After visiting this palace, sis said we could actually forgo this area but I actually rather like this area. I find it calm and peaceful for a change. ^ ^

Edit 20/05/13: I misunderstood, sis actually meant the Hall of Ceremonial Music instead of Zhaigong could be missed (combo ticket with Zhaigong). There were an exhibit on all the Ming and Qing emperors, complete with a picture and brief description which was not shown elsewhere.

Nowadays, it serve as a park to the general public. Along the long corridor leading towards those magnificent halls, there were people playing poker, or having a game of chess, or trying to make some sell of some souvenirs while snacking. At the side were some people doing line dancing or kick jianzi.

We had our little snack as well ^ ^

Roasted sweet potato.. simple but yummy

Side note: Jetstar birthday sales - but how come no international destinations? :(