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.
A visit to the Ruins of Yuanmingyuan after the first snow of 2010.
The Line 1 of Beijing Subway was constructed in 1969, it was the first urban subway system in China, the system has 9 lines right now, and connects 147 stations around the downtown and suburb area of Beijing.
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.
Once Beijing Textile City populated by factories and warehouses, Image Base is now all designer spaces for culture-based industries.
The 2nd snow arrived as expected on 10th of Nov, and it was another heavy one! I took some photos in the hutongs around Dongsi Area.
Even though I would say Beijing is pretty flat, but the city is just next to mountains, small hills of Taihang Mountain chain touch the suburb of Beijing in the north and west direction, they are visible in the clear days, beyond the mountains in the north (where are famous for the Great Wall), there stretches the Inner Mongolia Plateau, in very hot summer days, just drive alone with the Jing-Zhang Express Way, 3 hours you can feel the cool breeze from grassland.
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.
