Beijing, China

When coming back to Beijing after the visit of the Great Wall we went to the Summer Palace (Yíhé Yuán). It’s a former palace and now a park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The central Kunming Lake was entirely man made and the excavated soil was used to build the nearby Longevity Hill. One finds there a variety of palaces, gardens, splendid halls and pavilions. It is a real ‚masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design’.

On the way back to our hotel we did a stop at the Olympic green with its main attraction – the national stadium (also called bird’s nest).

The next day the first visit was the Temple of Heaven which is a complex of religious buildings and one of the town’s landmarks. It is – surprising – also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The surroundings of the Temple of Heaven are now a very popular park for exercising (Qigong). As it was sunday there were a lot of people playing games, doing exercises or just sitting around.

Beijing’s best known city square is Tiananmen Square. It is the third largest square in the world and outside China it is also known for the protests of 1989. The square is surrounded by several impressive buildings (the Great Hall of the People, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the National Museum of China) and has the Monument to the People’s Heroes in its middle. To the north of the square is the gate tower to the ...

... Forbidden City – which was our next spot. The ‚ Gùgōng’ is huge in dimension. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. The complex consists of 980 buildings and is traditionally divided into two parts. The Outer Court includes the southern sections, and was used for ceremonial purposes. The Inner Court includes the northern sections, and was the residence of the Emperor and his family, and therefore was also used for day-to-day affairs of state.

Beijing is a very impressive city with many spots for sightseeing. We were a little bit irritated by the masses of people and the strenuous traffic (congestion and traffic jam every day and everywhere you go). Nevertheless it is worth a visit once in a life-time.