Wanping Fortress was built in 1638-1640, in the Ming Dynasty for defending Li Zicheng (李自成) peasant rebellion. At the beginning it was named as Circumpolar Town “拱极城”, in 1928, it was renamed as Wanpingcheng “宛平城”. It has only two gates, the east gate named Ever Prosperous Gate “永昌门” , then renamed as “威严门” Majestic Gate, the west gate named as Favorably Govern Gate “顺治门”.
Today is the 3rd following sunny day.
The sky is beautiful anyway, white cloud and blue sky, but I still hate the sun in this most unwelcome time.
China’s Mount Wutai on Friday (26th of June, 2009) became China’s 38th site to join UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a cultural landscape.
Mount Wutai, literally the five-terrace mountain, is a sacred Buddhist mountain with five flat peaks. The cultural landscape features 53 monasteries and includes the East Main Hall of Foguang Temple, a structure that was built in 857 during the Tang Dynasty (618-917) and is one of the oldest wooden buildings in China.
It also features the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) Shuxiang Temple with a huge complex of 500 statues representing Buddhist stories woven into three dimensional pictures of mountains and water.
The structures on the site represent a catalogue of the way Buddhist architecture developed and influenced palace building in China for more than one millennium.
3 days after the Summer Solstice of 2009, on 23rd of June, Beijing experienced a very hot day, 42.3 degree Celsius, the hotest day since 1951 record.
Now the weather is hot but dry, so it is still tolerable, by the middle of July till August, the most humid days will come.
From next Tuesday (30th of June, 2009), the Wifi hot-spot will go free at Beijing Airport, including T1, T2 and T3, yes all goes for free.
It will be a very good news for travelers.
According to a recent report from ACI (Airport Council International), the first quarter of 2009, traffic at Beijing Airport goes as 1.5 million next to Atlanta Airport, ranks 2nd in the world.
I will try it next time there.
National Library of China, includes: the Library of Ancient Books which locates at Wenjing Street, west of Beihai Park, and the Main Library which showed here in 3-D rendering.
According to an article by Economist Intelligence Unit, among the world top 10 most liveable cities, Canada and Australia account 6, Austria, Finland and Switzerland take the other 4. Osaka Japan is the top asian city in the list, ranking 13th.
The top 10 ranking:
1, Vancouver
2, Vienna
3, Melbourne
4, Toronto
5, Perth
6, Calgary
7, Helsinki
8, Geneva
9, Sydney
10 Zurich
The ranking is made based on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rating, covering over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors, mainly focused in five categories such as: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, infrastructure. The categories are compiled and weighted to provide an overall rating of 1–100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal.
Other cities ranking goes as: Stockholm and Hanbourg 14, Paris 17, Berlin 22, London 51, Moscow 69.
China cities ranking goes like: Tianjin 72, Suzhou 74, Beijing 76, Shenzhen 83, Shanghai 84, Dalian 85 Guangzhou 89, Qingdao 95.
The unfolding political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe makes Harare the least desirable city in the survey. Afghanistan and Iraq are not included.
Part 2 of the panaroma pictures…
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