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.

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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.

Different from the Temple of Heaven, the altar of Earth is shape of square, followed the Chinese idea of “Heaven is round, earth is square”. The Emperor would visit here on the day of summer solstice, during the ritual, sacrifices were offered on the altar to appease the gods of earth, which we believe they will help mankind in return.

This altar in the center is called 方泽坛 or Fangzetan, which can be literally translated as “Square Shaped Moated Altar “, there was a mini moat surrounding the altar, but no more today…we are in shortage of water…

During the ceremony, 15 statues of mountain gods would be presented in the north side of the 2nd terrace (not the top one), 8 statues of ocean gods and river gods would be presented in east and west side respectively on the same terrace.

Today Temple of Earth is most frequented not by tourists but local residents, as large space provides an ideal place for playing Taichi and other excercises.

It is still busy around the year, there 3 times of book fairs, and during the Chinese New Year, a traditional temple fairs will be held here as well.

How to get here: Lama Temple Stop of Subway Line 2, go to the north east exit, there is just about 5 minutes walking.

Ticket: 5 Yuan, go to the altar may be charged at another 5 yuan.

Tips: Here is very close to the Lama Temple, the Confucius Temple and Guozijian (the old Imperial College), you can make it a package for a full day visit, and after that for conclusion of this busy day,  it is good to go into the small alleys around Nanluoguxiang looking for a cup of beer.

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I’m happy to introduce our new personal tour “To Be a Beijinger for a Day”. This 1 day tour focuses on the axis of Beijing. The tour will guide you through the various periods of Beijing’s history, from the 1400’s to present day.

The itinerary includes:

1. Temple of Heaven
2. Tian’anmen Square
3. Forbidden City
4. Olympic Park

Transportation: Taxi

Price: USD $60 per person, including transportation by taxi. I can pick you up from your hotel or meet at another rendezvous point. The price doesn’t include lunch and entrance fees to the attractions on the tour.

The price is on sale now, takes at 20% off, the promotion price is USD $48 per person, group price is also avaible, contact with me for further information.

Entrance Ticket :

Temple of Heaven: RMB 35 Yuan per Person;
Forbidden City: RMB 60 Yuan per Person.

Notes: There is about 3.3 miles of walking distance in the tour. You can have lunch around Di’anmen Street (Marked on the Map), as there are restaurants big or small, or if you like, KFC and McDonald’s are near by as well.

For more details of the tour, please check the Map and download the Brochure in PDF.

Preview of the PDF Brochure:

For booking please contact with me at: waddebye at gmail.com, or feedback me here:

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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.

Temple of Heaven is not a single temple actually. There are many buildings, basically there are three parts inside, and there is an local axis going along with the most important buildings.

Large space in the park is just occupied by trees, most of them cypress. This design was based on the ancient thought, that the worship done in the forest wasthe most sacred and also the cleanest. Today if you visit here early in morning, like 6 am, you can see many people are here, not for praying…but for morning exercise.

Temple of Heaven was placed on the list of the World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1998, as the “largest building complex for worshipping heaven in the world”.

South Part: the Circular Mound Altar and the Imperial Vault of Heaven.

The Emperor would visit the Circular Mound Altar every year on the day of winter solstice, this ceremony was called the “Worshipping to Heaven”. To the north, in the little round courtyard, there are three buildings, the middle one is the Vault of Heaven, it was the place for storing the tablets of God of Heaven and the ancestors of the royal family. There are two flank buildings, in the east is for the tablets of the Gods of Brightness and Stars, in the west is for the tablets of Gods of Wind, Thunder, Cloud and Rain.

Though it was not likely for the Emperor to go through all the buildings in one time, there is a bridge to connect the south part to the north part. The Red Stariway Bridge is about 3 meters above the ground.

North Part: the Altar for Praying for Grain and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.

If we keep the south part in mind, it is easy to recoginzed the buildings in the north part, you can say that the same story repeated again, but note this time, the temple and the altar were built together, that is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was built on the Altar for Praying Grain. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the Emperor would visit here on the 8th day after the Chinese New Year. In the sense of architecture, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest is the crown of the whole complex, very likely you have seen it in some other places, in photos or maybe even in brand logos.

West Part: the Palace of Abstinence
Before any of the ceremony, the Emperor would have to go fast for 3 days, first 2 days in the Hall of Abstinence inside Forbidden City, and the last day here, therefore the palace is walled and moated like the Forbidden City, during the occupation of the Eight Allied Force in 1901, the British headquaters was here.

Interesting acoustics phenomenon can be found at the round shaped buildings. First spot locates at the Circular Mound Altar, there is a piece of stone in the center, on that piece of stone, your voice can be echoed loudly, I tried and it works most of the cases, even when there were many visitors around. The second spot (the Echo Wall) and third sport (the Triple Sound Stones) are both inside the courtyard of the Imperial Vault of Heaven, and both of them don’t work in the daytime.

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During the Ming and Qing Dynasties grand ceremonies were held at Tian An Men. Composed of the rostrum and gate tower, the building is 34.7 meters high and has five watchtowers. Supported by nine huge columns, the building has a splendid colorful roof of glazed tiles. With painted pillars and carved beams, the hall of Tian An Men Rostrum looks majestic. Sixty huge columns, representing the Earthly Branches designate years, months, days and hours and the Heavenly stems to designate marks of order, stand in perfect harmony to demonstrate the permanent stability of the nation. Tian An Men, a masterpiece of China’s ancient architectural art, represents the superb skill and artistic talent of the Chinese people.

As one of the largest city squares in the world, Tian An Men Square occupies an area of 440, 000 square meters–spacious enough to accommodate half or even 1 million people. Many annual and special celebrations and assemblies are held here.

In the ancient time, the square was in T-shaped and was much narrow, it was surrounded by red wall, along the axis there was “Thousand Step Corridor”, with two gates (Dragon Gate in the east, Tiger Gate in the west side) opened to the now day Chang’an Avenue, just outside the corridor there were government offices (civil east, military west)

On October 1st, 1949, Chairman Mao Ze Dong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China on the Tian An Men Rostrum. On the oncoming 60 years anniversary of P.R.China, there will have a national parade centered in the square. VIP guests could be seated at the reviewing stands close to the Tian’anmen Gate, and there will about 1 million people to take part in the celebration.

Important Buildings:

Monument to the People’s Heroes(人民英雄纪念碑), erected in 1958. On the north side of the monument, carved an inscription “Eternal glory to the people’s heroes” in Mao’s hand writing. The base of the monument is not opened to public.

Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall, constructed in 1977, inside the hall people can visit the Mao’s crystal coffin, it is free of charge, but normally have to wait in queue for hours.

Zhengyangmen Gate and its Arrow Tower (functions as its guarding building), these two buildings was joined together by a wall, and altogether they constitute the front gate of the inner city of Peking, as we know, the wall were gone in 1960s, so these two buildings are now just standing apart.

The Great Hall of the People, it was built in Oct. 1958 and was completed 1 year after. There are more than 300 reception rooms and conference halls of various sizes.

The National Museum locates at the east side of the square, it houses a permanent exhibition displaying Chinese history from 1.7 million ago, the building is now in renovation, and will be finished in 2010

At the south east corner, stands an European style building, and that was the first Beijing Railway Station, it was in the Legation Quarter, so to the east of the square, there was a large piece of field occupied by foreign embassies before 1949.

How to get here

Taxi cannot stop close by, and there are 2 lines of Subway stop at the square, but there is a long distance to go to the center. Security scan is a must before going into the square.

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It took Emperor Zhudi only 14 years (1406-1420) to build his royal palace in Beijing. The royal palace, popularly known as the Forbidden City, was the permanent residence of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911). It covers over 720,000 square meters of floor space, with more than 8,700 rooms, surrounded by city wall as high as ten meters and a city moat as wide as 52 meters.

By this way, the city of Beijing shapes as Fobidden City in the core, then Royal City, then Inner City, and with the Outer City located at the very south. Even today this structure still effects modern Beijing city planning mainly in 2 ways, firstly Beijing is still growing in this pan-frying pattern, 2nd Ring, 3rd Ring, 4th Ring, 5th Ring and the 6th Ring, and secondly the central axis of the Forbidden City is still the central line of Beijing, the 2008 Olympic Games Village was built exactly on the extension of this line.

The Forbidden City can be divided into the Outer Court and Inner Court. The Outer Court where emperors held important ceremonies consists of the three great halls of Tai He Dian (太和殿), Zhong He Dian (中和殿) and Bao He Dian (保和殿), which form the main body, and Wenhua Hall (文华殿) and Wuying Hall (武英殿), which are arrayed like wings on the sides.

The Inner Court, where emperors handled routine state affairs and lived with their wives and concubines, consists of Qian Qing Gong (乾清宫), Jiao Tai Dian (交泰殿), Kun Ning Gong (坤宁宫), Yangxin Hall (养心殿), literally as “the Hall of Mental Cultivation” as well as six east and west palaces and the imperial garden–Yu Hua Yuan (御花园).

The Imperial Palace is the largest and most complete ancient imperial complex so well preserved in China. It embodies collectively ancient Chinese traditions and architectural art. In 1961, it was proclaimed an important cultural site under state protection, and was listed as a World Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1987.

Of the total of 24 emperors lived here, 14 were from the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) and 10 from of the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). For a short time at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Imperial Palace was occupied by peasant rebels led by Li Zichen (李自成). It ended its historical mission as the imperial palace after the revolution of 1911 when the Qing Dynasty–the last dynasty in China–was overthrown. The front part or the Outer Court of the Imperial Palace was opened to the public as the Museum of Antiquities in 1914, and the Palace Museum was established in 1925.

Visit

Today, most of the halls and palaces have been opened to the public in their original state with their former ornamentation and daily-use utensils on display; others exhibit special art treasures, such as jewelry, ancient paintings, bronzes, ceramics, handicrafts, clocks and watches, presenting the age-old and splendid historical civilization of China.

It roughly takes about 1.5 hours to go through along with the axis, but for a more detailed tour it may take 3-4 hours, for example you can try the east route, where locates the Emperor Qianlong’s retirement garden, or you may try a little west as well.

A view of Forbidden City from north to south.

• Website: http://www.dpm.org.cn/
• Ticket: RMB 60 Yuan in Summer, RMB 40 Yuan in Winter

Below is a map showing part that is opened inside the Forbidden City.

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The location of Changling Tomb.

Emperor Yongle

Changlingcovers an area of 120,000 square meters, where buried Ming Emperor Zhudi and his Empress Xu. The construction began in 1409 AD and completed in 18 years, it is the central, largest and the best preserved mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty Tombs.

Zhu D (朱棣)i was the 4th son of Zhu Yuangzhang (the first emperor of Ming dynasty), initially Zhu Di was made a prince entitled the “the King of Yan” guarding Yanjing (today’s Beijing) possessing a heavy military base in Beijing, and his eldest brother Zhu Biao was made the Crown Prince. In 1392, the latter died at the age of 38 before ascending to the throne.

In 1399, after the first emperor’s death, the throne was past down to the son of the Crown Prince. The young Emperor Jian (建文帝) proved to be too weak in politics and military action, it took only 4 years that he was droven away from the throne, During the final attack of the Capital Nanjing, Emperor Jianwen ‘s palace caught fire, the emperor and his wife disappeared mysteriously, people believed most likely they died in the fire, though their corpses came to be nowhere.

Zhu Di had ended Jianwen’s reign. Zhu Di and his administration spent the latter part of 1402 brutally purging China of Jianwen’s supporters, and he was credited with ordering perhaps the only case of “extermination of the ten agnates” in the history of China.

In order to establish himself as legitimate successor of the regime, he also ordered all records of the four-year-reign of Jianwen Emperor to be dated as year 32 through year 35 of the Hongwu Emperor.

Though in the end, Zhudi came to the throne at Nanjing reign-titled as “Yongle” (literarlly “Perpetual Happiness”), his usurpation of the throne made him somewhat ‘unfit’ in the old capital, in the year 1421, after a brand new capital constructed at his order, he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing. Most of  Beijing’s layout shaped based upon his design.

Also Emperor Yongle had the Grand Canal of China repaired and reopened in order to supply the new capital of Beijing in the north with a steady flow of goods and southern foodstuffs.

Emperor Yongle sponsored the massive and long term Zheng He (郑和) expeditions. These were China’s only major sea-going explorations of the world, some scholars believe behingd these overseas expedition there were attempts of tracing the mysterously disappeared Emperor Jianwen.

Yongle sponsored and created many cultural traditions in China. He promoted Confucianism and kept traditional ritual ceremonies with a rich cultural theme. His respect for Chinese culture was apparent. He commissioned his Grand Secretary, Xie Jin, to write a compilation of every subject and every known book of the Chinese. The massive project’s goal was to preserve Chinese culture and literature in writing. The initial copy took 17 months to transcribe and another copy was transcribed in 1557. The book, named the Yongle Encyclopedia (永乐大典), is still considered one of the most marvelous human achievements.

Many have seen Yongle as in a life-long pursuit of power, prestige, he is remembered very much for his cruelty. According to historical records, even in his mausoleum at Changling, 16 lifes were sacrificed for martyrdom.

Emperor Yongle reigned the Ming for 22 years.(1403-1424)

The Changling Tomb

The architecture in Changling are of magnificence, especially the Ling’En Hall, the architecture style of which is identical to that of the Supreme Harmony Hall in the Forbidden City. Ling’En Hall represented the highest architecture and artistic level of Ming dynasty. The beams, columns and trusses are all made of Nanmu, Nanmu is a species of plant in the Lauraceae family, which is endemic to China, it is now threatened by habitat loss. The diameter of internal columns are even more than 1 meter. Nanmu columns of such a big size are rarely found all over the world. This palace has been maintained quite well up to now and it represents a typical architectural style of the Ming dynasty.

For its indisputable charm and great historical and artistic value, Changling was inscribed into the World Heritage Organization Catalogue by UNESCO on 3rd of July, 2003.

朱棣小传

大明成祖文皇帝，諱棣，太祖第四子也，母孝慈高皇后。洪武三年封燕王。十三年，之藩北平。

二十三年，棣討乃兒不花，獲其全部而還，太祖大喜，是後屢帥諸將出征，並令棣節制沿邊士馬，威名大振。

三十一年閏五月，太祖崩，皇太孫即位，時諳王以尊屬擁重兵，多不法。帝納齊泰、黃子澄謀，欲因事以次削除之，湘、代、齊、岷諸王皆以罪廢。棣自危，佯狂稱疾。

建文元年七月，上書天子指泰、子澄為奸臣，並援《祖訓》「朝無正臣，內有奸惡，則親王訓兵待命，天子密詔諸王統領鎮兵討平之」。書既發，遂舉兵。自署官屬，稱其師曰“靖難”。四年六月，燕兵陷都城，建文帝不知所終。棣升輦，詣奉天殿即皇帝位，下詔以洪武三十五年為紀年，明年改元永樂。

永樂三年六月，遣中官鄭和帥舟師使西洋諸國。

八年正月，成祖親征韃靼，五月，大敗本雅失里師；六月敗阿魯台師。

十二年二月，成祖親征瓦剌，六月，敗瓦剌次忽蘭忽失溫，馬哈木師。

二十年三月，成祖新征阿魯台，發京師，至雞鳴山，阿魯台遁。明年七月，成祖複親征之。二十二年三月，再親征阿魯台，不見敵，六月，糧盡，班師。七月，至榆木川，崩，年六十有五。

明长陵

长陵始建于1409年，历经18年建成。占地12万平方米，是明朝永乐皇帝朱棣与皇后徐氏的合葬陵墓。朱棣是明太祖朱元璋的第四子，初封燕王，镇守燕京。”靖难之变”后，在南京称帝，改元”永乐”。1421年迁都北京，在位22年(1403-1424)。

长陵建筑宏伟，特别是祾恩殿，其建筑风格与故宫太和殿一致。梁、柱、檩全部使用整材金丝楠木，其中立柱的直径都在一米以上，是世间罕见的奇材佳木。此殿保护完好，具有典型明代建筑风格。

长陵2003年7月3日被联合国教科文组织列入”世界遗产名录”。

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Built in 1420 (the 18th year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty), Imperial Ancestral Temple (Taimiao) is situated on the east side of Tian’anmen. It used to be the imperial ancestral temple for offering sacrifices to Heaven and the Earth in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The front hall, called Sacrificial Hall, was for holding grand sacrificial ceremonies. It stands on a tri-tiered sumeru base made of white marble. Inside the hall, the sixty-eight columns and the wooden components are all made of expensive golden-silk nanmu wood; the floor is paved with golden bricks, and the ceiling is adorned with colored gilded paintings.

The former imperial forbidden compound was turned into Beijing Working People’s Cultural Palace after 1949, with its name inscribed by Chairman Mao. It was officially opened to the public on May 1, 1950.

The cultural palace is also a center to host big events, for instance, Yanni’s concert and the opera Turadot—the latter was voted as the top ten entertainment events in China in the 20th century.

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Beihai was first built in 938 A.D., in the Liao Dynasty. In 1267,  Kublai Khan took here as the center of his capital and built his palaces very close by, now today they are underneath the Jingshan Hill. In the Ming and Qing Dynasty, Beihai was the inner garden and lake inside the Royal City, till 1925 it was opened as a public park.

Beihai was constructed based on the traditional Chinese mythological fairyland story: one lake and three islets, today only one kept (the one with the white pagoda), another one is the Tuancheng (used to be seperated by water), and the last one was merged with the bridge.

In the very south of the park, that is the Tuancheng City or the “City of Harmony”, where was the 2nd islet. It is 4.6 meters high and extended 276 meters in perimeter. In the center, that is a temple, but 2 trees  famous,  named as “General in White Robe” and “Marquis of Shade”.

The big Jade Jar by the center of here is also famous, it dates back to 1265.

This is the 1st islet out of the three holy islets, below the white pogoda is a temple named “永安寺” or the “Temple of Eternal Peace”

the Immortal’s Fairy Dew Plate from the Qing Dynasty

A view from the north side of the islet, at the left side of this photo, the stone was collected from Taihu Lake of Yangzhou, in the south of China

That is the temple on top of Jingshan Park

The Nine-Dragon Screen was erected in 1756, it was once the screen wall of a hall. The screen is about 25 meters long, there are nine dragons on each side of the screen.

Five-Dragon Pavillion

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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:

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