1-The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing (宣武门天主堂), also known as Nantang (南堂, the South Cathedral), is an historic Roman Catholic Church located in Beijing. It was built by Italian missionary Matteo Ricci in the early 17th century, as the oldest Catholic church in Beijing, it was damaged many times by earthquakes and fires, the present Baroque style dates from 1904.
At the southern end of the Ming Tombs area is a large memorial archway called Pailou. Built in 1540, it is now a monumental construction, built of white marble with five arches. Six rectangular pillars support it with beautiful bas-relief carvings (lions, dragons, lotus flowers). It is 14 metres hith and 28.86 metres wide.
Panjiayuan Flea Market is located at the south east of the 3rd Ring Road. It is an open air market, opened 7 days a week, but the best time to go is on weekend. The market was famous for antique dealings about 10 years ago, today it is famous for the big collections of handicraft works from the neighbouring provinces, but not entirely in the sense of antiques, you can still get some real stuff, but not very easy.
The Temple of the Reclining Buddha is located in the Western Hills at the southern foot of Jubao (also called Shou’an) Mountain, about 20 kilometers from Beijing downtown. It is inside the Beijing Botanical Garden, so if you want to visit this temple, you have to pay the garden ticket first.
Temple of Azure Clouds is inside the Fragrant Hill Park, it is close to the north gate, after paying the park ticket, another temple ticket (10 yuan) will be needed.
This temple was initially built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and was reconstructed during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The interior buildings almost retain the style of the Ming.
Today, 1st Nov., here comes the first snow of 2009, and the snow is a heavy one, it just come without much expectation. I didn’t see such a heavy snow for some time I think, the sky is so generous this year.
In balance to the Temple of Heaven, Temple of Earth was built in 1530 in the Ming Dynasty, it was subsequently renovated in compliance with an imperial decree of Emperor Qianlong in 1749 in the period of Qing Dynasty, after the Cultural Revolution, in 1981 it was restored.
Almost of all Chinese know a famous phrase by Francis Bacon “Knowledge is power”. Though today the conception of knowledge changes in some ways, while the source of getting knowledge changes a lot, internet plays a very important role in that aspect. But the books printed in paper is still very convenient, book prices are much internationlized in China recently, so they are no longer cheap in China, most people including me like to buy books online, they give you 20% or 30% off.
Badachu Park is at the foot of the west hill of Beijing. Normally people come here for visiting the 8 temples scatter around the hill. In autumn days, it is also good for seeing the leaves of the trees that are coming to be coloured.
Temple of Heaven, or “Tiantan”, “the Altar of Heaven” in Chinese, was built in 1420, same time as the Forbidden City. It was opened to public in 1918, after 1945, during the civil war of China, the wall at the south part of the park was destroyed to setup a small airport.
