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Hutong in the west of the old city

admin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:44:38 +0000

Courtyard house built-up with pigeons cage on top.

A very quiet hutong.

A big courtyard.

A courtyard almost broken, serves as a dorm of a movie company.

Entrance into the inner section of this courtyard.

A hospital in the hutong, Beijing Massage Hospital.

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The Virtual Forbidden City

admin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:33:11 +0000

Imagine to have a visit into the Forbidden City in the Qing Dynasty a hundred years ago? and watch how the Emperor did his daily job? or have a lesson with the archery teacher? or just desguised as a princess to play around the Royal Garden of the Forbidden City ?

Now the Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is available to download and you can visit some parts of the Forbidden City, and you also may chat with other visitors online.

The Download is about 203 MB in size, and available in XP/VISTA/MAC/LINUX files. You can register and login as an imperial boy or lady or some other servents, or maybe without registration just login as a visitor.

There are some tour guides scattered at different places, you may join in their tours around the Forbidden City. They will tell you something on site, but you have to fellow them most of the time.

If you will have a tour by your own, you can go into the QianqingGong, there is an emperor busy about his job.

Or you may even go very close to the emperor and take a look what he is doing.

Or just go outside, and have a view of the big courtyard, just like in the movie “Last Emperor”.

And in the royal garden, you will see someone is drawing a picture for the emperor, and some of the imperial boys are playing around.

As for the models are made very much close to reality, I put some real photos followed, as you can see the difference:

Sacred Way of Ming Tomb (1)
Temple of Earth (0)
Axis Tour of Beijing (0)
Temple of Heaven (1)
Tian An Men Square (0)
Forbidden City (5)
Zhu Di’s Changling Tomb at Ming Tombs (1)
Imperial Ancestral Temple (0)
Bei Hai Park 北海公园 (0)
Hutong in the west of the old city (0)

Oct 3rd, Wangfujing

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:55:01 +0000

I think that is a very boring job…

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Oct.23, a visit to National Library and Qianmen Street

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:39:08 +0000

There was about a month since the National Library (New) put into operation, and it said to be the 3rd biggest in the world…

That is a big reading room, once check in from any entrance, you will be able to look around everywhere. The glass roof saves a lot of energy, and winter days should be very warm inside, just by sunshine.

Free water!

Laptops can be taken with you, and power outlets are available just close to the table.

And this tablet TV for reading some of the Chinese Newspaper.

The room for newspaper

A 5-minutes walk, just south of the New one, that is the old National Library building, where was built-up in 1990s.

And here is the lobby of the old library.

The old facilities.

And just before the Olympic games started, this just renovated Qianmen street was opened to public, and this is my first time to visit it, now it is not busy, and many of the buildings at the both side of the road are just empty, waiting someone to rent.

The new trolley, just going to be in operation someday.

Some places don’t match with its neighbour, so has to put a picture there to hide the behind.

A view from the south to the north.

and further going to the south

The shop of “Duyichu”, it is famous for making steamed Dumplings, or “Shaomai” (烧卖）.

A last-week photo, and a 100-year-old photo, below…

And after the Qianmen street, I walked into the Dashilan shopping street, see if there are some change there…

Always busy and noisy…

A photo in a small community close to Liulichang Street.

A little hostel in a hutong, below the room, on the ground floor, that is a public toilet.

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White Dagoba Temple (Baita Si)

admin — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:57:50 +0000

Located at the Western District inside Beijing City is a Buddhist temple called White Dagoba Temple. It got its name from a white old dagoba inside the temple. In the same year after the dagoba was built, a magnificent temple was constructed with the dagoba as its centerpiece. In 1368 during the Yuan Dynasty, the Temple was destroyed by thunder and fire, only the dagoba remained intact. Most of the buildings you can now see inside the Temple were constructed in the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911). The Temple was reconstructed in 1457 during the Ming Dynasty and was repaired in the following dynasties. The Temple originally had the name “Temple of Great Holy Longevity and Eternal Peace”. It was named “Miaoyingsi” after it was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). The common people call the Temple by its more popular name, the White Dagoba Temple.

The Temple consists of several halls and yards. In one hall, wooden Sakyamuni, Medicine Buddha and Amitabhas are offered sacrifices to.

The White Dagoba is more famous than the Temple itself. The dagoba has its own history of more than 700 years. It was initially built from 1271 to 1279 during the Yuan Dynasty and was designed and constructed by a famous Nepali at that time. Altogether, this Nepali built three dagobas in the whole of China, one in Tibet, one in Wutai Mountain, in Shanxi Province (one of the four famous Buddhist mountains in China) and the third one here in White Dagoba Temple. These dagobas are the combinations of Chinese and Nepalese cultures. The White Dagoba is fifty one meters high like a gourd. The whole body was covered by chalkiness.Its upper part is like a conic neck divided into three fragments.

Its base is a three-layered square with a height of nine meters. Thirty six copper bells hang to a tray, also made of copper, under the roof of the dagoba. They sound beautifully well when wind blows unto them. This dagoba is on the opposite side of the White Dagoba in Beihai Park and fifteen meters higher. The Temple’s White Dagoba is the biggest in Beijing and is considered the largest Lama Stupa of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368) in present day China.

There are many precious Buddhist cultural relics hidden inside the roof of the dagoba and are now displayed at the Temple. For example, there are the scriptures written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, and the little carved Buddhas figures.

The Temple was formally opened in 1980. By now, the reconstruction of the mountain gate of the Temple has already been completed..

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Five-Pagoda Temple (Wutasi)

admin — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:49:46 +0000

The Five-Pagoda Temple is situated about 200 meters to the northwest of Beijing Zoo. Its original name, the Temple of True Awakening (Zhenjuesi), was later changed to the Temple of Great Righteous Awakening (Dazhengjuesi). Today, however, it is popularly referred to as the Five-Pagoda Temple.

The structure of the five pagodas is known in Buddhist terminology as the “diamond throne pagoda” style, wherein five small pagodas stand on a large square foundation known as the “throne”. This architectural form was introduced to China by an Indian monk in the early 15th century, and the Temple of True Awakening was constructed here in 1473. The entire temple complex, including numerous wooden buildings, was repaired and renovated in 1761, but in the late Qing Dynasty it was looted and burned to the ground, first by the Anglo-French Allied Armies in 1860, and again by the Eight-Power Allied Force in 1900. Today, the only extant relic is the monumental diamond throne pagoda.

The architectural style of the temple is no mere imitation of its Indian prototype, but displays bold innovations: the height of the throne foundation was raised, the height of the pagodas was reduced, and typical Chinese glazed tiles were added.

The square throne foundation is 17 meters high. The five pagodas rise from their rectangular bases on top of this foundation, one in each of the four corners and the fifth in the center. The central pagoda is slightly higher than the others, with 13 eaves, two more than those in the corners. The entire structure is made of white marble. Today, after more than 500 years of oxidation, the flecks of iron in the stone have given the entire structure a pale orange cast.

The four walls of the foundation are carved with rows of Buddhas (the One Thousand Sagacious Buddhas) as well as bas-reliefs of Buddhist symbols, floral designs and Sanskrit letters. The five pagodas are also covered with similar carvings on a small scale.

A door at eh foot of the foundation on the southern side opens into an inner spiral stairway that leads to the top pf the foundation.

There are a total of six “diamond throne pagodas” in China. Two others are in Beijing in the Temple of the Azure Clouds (Biyunsi) and the Yellow Temple (Huangsi). One is in Huhehot in Inner Mongolia; another in Kunming, Yunnan Province, in the Miaozhan (Profundity) Temple; and one is in Zhengding, Hebei Province, in the Guanghui (Universal Beneficence) Temple.

The temple is now a museum of stone carving.

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July 12, community houses

admin — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 05:12:53 +0000

bus stop

almost all the windows are well protected

but, if someone doesn’t bar the window…

TouchBeijing.com » inside

Hutong in the west of the old city

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