Beijing Things to Do Tips by tompt

For many visitors the first meeting with lama buddhism. The Lama temple is a colorful temple with many visitors, tourists and worshippers.

The Yonghe Lamasery is the largest lamasery in China today. Built in 1694 as the residence of Emperor Yongzheng when he was just a prince. In 1723 he became emperor and in 1744 the status of the building was changed to that of a lamasery, the Yonghe Lamasery became the national centre of Lama administration.

Leave a Comment

Phone: +86 (0)10 6404 4499
Address: 12 Yong He Gong Avenue
Directions: Located on the north end of the city center, easily accessible from the metro line .

Across the road from the Lama temple you see the temple of Confucius. It is not as colorful and looks more desolate than the Lama temple, but is certainly worth the visit.

The Temple of Confucius was initially built in 1302 and additions were made during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is the second largest temple constructed for Confucius, the greatest thinker and educationist in ancient China, the largest being in Qufu, Shandong Province.

Inside the templecomplex are more than 100 ancient trees. One is a 700 years old cypress named "Chujianbai" (Touch Evil Tree). Legend tels the tree can see who is evil, it proved it by knocking the hat of a evil man...

The temple houses the Beijing museum too.

Leave a Comment

Phone: 84011977 64012118
Address: 13 Guozijian Jie
Directions: Yonghegong subway stop
Website: http://www.confucius-bj.org

The most hectic sight of Beijing is without doubt the forbidden city. The squares in the immense city are filled with tourist, chinese and foreigners.

The Forbidden City, Gu Gong in Chinese, was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. 9,999 buildings are surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall. Between the Tiananmen Gate and the Gate of Devine Might (Shenwumen) in the north is a distance of 960 meters, the distance between the east and west gates is 750 meters.
Construction of the palace complex was between 1407and 1420.
Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had lived reigned here.

Leave a Comment

Address: North of Tiananmen Square
Directions: In the Center of Beijing
Website: http://www.dpm.org.cn/

Even more decadent than the forbidden city is the summer palace, the place where the royal family used to spend the summer.

The Summer Palace has a history of over 800 years. In the Jin dynasty the first palace was built on this site. In 1750 Emperor Qian Long of the Qing dynasty built the Garden of Clear Ripples. In 1860, the Anglo-French Allied Forces invaded Beijing and set fire to the garden. In 1888 Empress Dowager Cixi restored the grand garden. In 1900, the garden was plundered again. Nearly all big temples and halls were destroyed. In 1903 a full-scale restoration began.
The present Summer Palace covers an area of 294 hectares, of which 3/4 is water.
After the last Qing Emperor Puyi was thrown out of the Summer Palace in 1924 the garden was turned into a park.

Leave a Comment

Address: Northwest of Beijing
Website: http://www.summerpalace-china.com

The Drum tower is located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing and was built in 1272 it stood in the heart of the Yuan capital Dadu. In 1420 the building was reconstructed to the east and in 1800 large-scale renovations were carried out.
The first level of the Drum Tower is a solid square terrace four meters high, 55.6 meters long and 30 meters wide. A broad wooden structure is built atop the terrace. The Drum Tower was once the time keeping center for the whole city, drums were beaten to mark the hours. The upper story of the building housed 24 drums, of which only one survives. The timekeeping was abondened at the same time with the last emperor.

Leave a Comment

Address: Gulou Xidajie, Dongcheng District
Website: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/bell.htm

Opposite of the Drum Tower is the Bell Tower, a 33 meter high tower with gray walls and a green glazed roof. The Bell Tower was first used during the reign of the Ming Emperor Yongle. It was destroyed by fire and in 1747 Emperor Qianlong undertook the reconstruction.
The Bell Tower originally housed a huge iron bell, this was not loud enough and was replaced by a massive cast bronze bell. This bell could be heard from a distance of over 20 kilometers.

Today you can climb a steep stairway to the second floor to see the bell, and have a good view over the hutongs and the drum tower opposite it.

Leave a Comment

Address: Gulou Xidajie, Dongcheng District
Website: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/bell.htm

Known of the 1989 massacre, in which the estimates of the number of civilians killed range up to 2,600 (Chinese Red Cross). Injuries are generally held to have numbered from 7,000 to 10,000. For those who don't know: A massive demonstration for democratic reform, began at Tiananmen Square by Chinese students in April, 1989 and was brutally repressed on June 3 and 4, 1989. You might know the picture of the young man standing in front of the tanks stopping them singlhandedly.

Tiananmen Square is located in the center of Beijing City and has an area of 440,000 square meters.
Around the square you can visit Tiananmen Tower, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, Mao Zedong Memorial Hall and see the national flag raising ceremony.

Leave a Comment

Directions: In the very center of Beijing
Website: http://www.roundtiananmensquare.com/index.html

High above the Tiananmen square you see the Five Star Red Flag, the Chinese national flag.
Every day at sunrise there is a ceremony to raise the flag by the guard of honor.
So if you want to witness that go to the square before sunrise, and don't expect to be the only visitor....
We blamed our jetlag for not going there (very cheap excuse)

Leave a Comment

Directions: In the very center of Beijing

This theater gives a superb acrobatic performance every night at 7:15. The performers are very young, but really good. There are different acrobatic routines, on bicycles, making a piramyd, the famous saucers on a stick and much more.....
The entire show takes about an hour, during the brake you can buy icecream for about 1 Euro, which is expensive for chinese standards. They also sell a movie on DVD or a booklet with pictures of the show.

Leave a Comment

Phone: +86 (0)10 6507 1818
Address: 36 East Third Ring Road North Section

We visited the Opera in a small theater. The play was subtitled above the stage, but as we were sitting font row not easy to read without pain in the neck.
For us it was a strange experience, sometimes even funny when the sounds coming from stage sounded like screaming cats. The make-up of the artists was another story, it looked great. But it was absolutely not a show we would like to see often. The one hour show was just enough.

To get an impression of the sound see a short movie we put on this website: http://www.freewebs.com/tompt/

Leave a Comment