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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Qianmen (Front Gate) Street named after the Zhengyangmen Gate (正阳门), alias of which was the Front Gate by the locals, the reason was simple, it was on the axis of the city, and was the formal entrance into the inner section of the old Peking, while the Qianmen Street was in the outer section of the City. The street also functioned as a passway when the Emperor was on his visit to the Temple of Heaven.

Due to its special location, it soon came to be a combination of every thing from the Ming Dynasty, little inns for the royal examinees and merchants, restaurants, in 1855 opened the first Pianyifang Roasted Duck (便宜坊), and in 1864 came the first shop of Quanjude Peking Duck (全聚德), and the famous steamed Dumpling restaurant Duyichu (都一处). Many famous Peking brands started their business around here, the famous Dashilan (大栅栏) locates just at the west side of the street in a wandering hutong alleyway, even today, it is still one of the major shopping streets for traditional Beijing stuff.

The Qianmen Street and Dashilan Street Area, was generally called as Qianmen Wai, or Ch’ien Men Wai (前门外), was a whole-sale trading market from the high-end jewellery, jade, banking, to daily stuff like fishes, coal, commissariat, pigs, even today the names of the closeby alley remind us its local history. By the way, the area was also famous for many other entertainments, opera houses, tea houses, night clubs …

In 1900, the north part of the street was destroyed in a big fire set by the Boxers.

From 1980s, some of the old shops kept and many new shops moved into the street, with more and more old buildings demolished, the street lost both its customers and most importantly original tastes gradually. In 2006, the area was in renovation, and it was almost ready done before the Olympic Games in 2008, sure, it regains attention, even now most of the buildings are still in decorations, many visitors come just for taking photos, fancy shops like H&M, Zara are already here, and more will move in.

After the renovation, the street becomes a pedestrian street, the trolley bus is the only way to go through north to south, the ticket charge is 20yuan/person, and very likely that is only the one-way ticket.

Two comparison photos taken in Sep. 2006, and in Sep. 2009, roughly at the same spot.

Most of the buildings are renovated according to their historic records in the 1920s to 1930s, but as most of them came together in a “natural process”, to rebuild them overnight again, not surprisingly some of the details of the buildings are just handled in a much easy way.

A panaromatic view of the street.

A view from north looking to south.

A view to the north, the end building is the Arrow Tower of the Zhengyangmen Gate.

There are many Beijing elements to decorate the street, from the bench, trash bin to the design of the street lamp (in shape like a bird cage).

At the left side, the archway leads into the Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant (全聚德).

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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.

View Larger Map

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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.

View Larger Map

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