Things to see and do Beijing 北京

Summer as well as winter, it is nice to spend the day in the beautiful surroundings of Summer Palace and its immense park. The latter is on a surface of about 280 hectares, delimited by a wall wall with few doors; with a huge lake, Kunming Lake, which covers three quarters of the surface and, in the north, a hill called "the hill of Longevity", on the flanks of which palaces and temples stretch up to the top.

History

Successively called "Garden of Golden Waters" under the Jin during the construction of the original palace, then "Garden of Wonderful Hills" while Ming had added the Temple of the Perfect Tranquility, other pavilions and enlarged the lake, it was to Emperor Qian Long (1711-1799) of the Qing the park owes its most important transformations. He was inspired by Hangzhou's architecture, which his mother emulated, Nihulu, had loved, and that is why Qian Long offered him as a gift for his sixtieth birthday the new ensemble renamed «the hill of the Millennial Longevity», standing in the «garden of clear Waves».

At the time, the court took refuge in its secondary residences outside the capital, from the arrival of the summer and its torrid chalks until 1860, where many palaces were destroyed, including the palace of summer. It was to Empress Cixi (1835-1908), the untreatable, but who took the whole thing, that it was a luxury restoration (it diverted money to bail out the imperial navy coffers) and its new name "garden where l l l… the concord is grown. The palace was once again destroyed in 1900 at the time of the Boxer revolt, and Cixi, who was very attached to it, rested it again.

Visit

In order to enter the courtyard, we first come under a large pai, a wooden porch sculpted and painted. In the middle of this double courtyard, you will see a beautiful bronze unicorn, and at the bottom is the room of Benveillance and Longevity, before which you will note four burning bronze incenses representing animals. It is said that the Empress gave its hearings in this Chamber.

Then, by heading to the lake, we arrive at the palace of the jade waves, poetic name for what was for ten years the prison in which Empress Cixi returned the emperor Guangxu trapped in the most complete isolation (he couldn't even see his wife or his concubines) after the failure.' a hundred days of reforms'. You can still see what was the furniture of Guangxu's bedroom.

We then headed to the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, where Cixi had offered, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, a superb theater, with all the modern mechanisms of the time - traps, water games effects… His true passion for theater sometimes pushed her on the boards during performances, under the tasting. It's Guanyin's isment.

Then you will go along the lake for a moment to arrive at the residence of Cixi, the palace of Joy and Longevity. This is where the empress took its summer quarters from June, and it was in this context that it used to be used daily for festins, said, of more than one hundred and twenty dishes and, as it only touched those closest to it, the cook thus had the ones that were the closest to her, she preferred in close proximity knowing that, for the smallest detail she was unpleasant, she was whipping servants and eunuchs, showing boundless cruelty. Notice the furniture in the throne room and some of the old ones.

The shores of the lake are lined with a long covered gallery with four pavilions running on 728 m at the foot of the millennium Longevity hill. We can also go along the shores of the lake, but the main interest of the gallery lies in the 14,000 small paintings that follow it and carefully reproduce historical or mythological scenes, landscapes or floral motifs… real masterpieces that deserve a little time to be admired, even though some have lost their colors and are damaged.

The gallery is cut in its middle by the orderly Cloud Palace, where Cixi used to celebrate his birthdays. There is still a great portrait in the empress's oil. This palace is also the starting point for ascension to the millennium of Longevity (Wanshoushan). A series of doors and stairs that end fairly steep lead through several pagoda of Buddhist worship: Bright Virtue Room, Buddhist Fragrances Pavilion, from which you can enjoy a wonderful panoramic view of the lake. Then a trail climbing through the trees completes this ascent on the Temple of the Perfect Wisdom, a brick building decorated with yellow and green ceramics and housed in Buddha's effigy statuettes.

Returning to the lake, the gallery continues to the famous marble boat, which seems strangely floody, docked on the lake and where, according to history, Cixi liked to organize banquets. There are small pontons from which you can rent canoes and cross the waters of the lake from one bridge to the next. It is the water community that has the most beautiful view of the Wanshoushan as a whole. In winter, you can cross the frozen lake on foot and even indulge in the joys of the ice chair or the skating rink with the many Chinese who walk through the family weekend.

A council, plan a good day to have the time to stroll and drink a cup of tea in a small house in the gardens, to canoe on the lake and admire the diverse plant species that make up the gardens harmoniously along the promenade. The ensemble has been classified as UNESCO's World Heritage Site since 1998.

One of the best places in Beijing to admire the Chinese practicing Qi quan, the exercises of qi gong, singing, dancing and other morning gymnastics.

History

Located in the south of the city in an immense park of 273 ha, this ensemble, designed under the Ming, was to be directly connected to the sky. Hence an extremely strong essoterism: colors, geometrical shapes (traditionally, the circle represents the sky and square, land), sounds, differences in height of buildings.

Incarnation of the Ming architecture to its closest degree to perfection, the Temple of Heaven gradually became the symbol of the Chinese capital. The tradition regarded the Emperor as the son of heaven, and as such he had to visit and sacrifice to his father, the Sky, and his ancestors, if he wanted to preserve harmony between the human order and the cosmic order. This is where the emperors of the Ming dynasty and Qing came, twice a year (15 ^th day of the 1 st lunar month and the day of the winter solstice), to worship the heavens and pray for a good harvest.

Originally, heaven and earth were both venerated in this temple, and in 1530 the temple of the earth (Ditan) was built north of Beijing. The emperor was escorted from Qian Men to the Temple of Heaven by his soldiers and ministers, royal blood princes and musicians, dancers and elephants. All doors and windows along his path were closed, because no one had to see the son of heaven.

Architectural forms are direct references to the themes of Heaven and Earth: The hall of Fastinence, or palate of the square, located near the celestial door of the west, is a forbidden city in miniature, while the temple of prayer for the good harvest (Qinian Dian) and the outdoor open air are both linked to heaven.

Visit

To the north of the whole, the temple of prayer for the good harvest is the main building. A triple terrace of 5,900 m ² in the middle of a square courtyard leads to the temple of conical form. Its triple roof covered with blue tiles melts into the blue mass of the sky. Prodigious technological feat: this gigantic building designed in 1420 is a clever assembly of wooden elements without nail. Symbolism is reflected in the architectural technique itself: This 38 m height structure and 30 m width is supported by 28 solid wooden pillars. The four central pillars represent the four seasons, the first crown of twelve pillars, the months of the year and the second, the hours of the day and night. Each pillar is a massive trunk of cedar in Yunnan province.

The room is directly open to the outside with its wooden latching walls. It was in this room that the sacrifice of the late spring was held. The throne of Heaven (always empty since Heaven could not sit there) was in the center of this room and, after presenting his written prayer asking Heaven that all conditions were harmoniously combined for good harvests, the emperor burned it in a furnace at the foot of the throne. In the pavilions, the gods of the Sun, Moon, Stars and Wind, Rain, Thunder and Eclairs were vented. In the nineteenth century, the lightning fell on the temple which was then reconstructed in 1889.

In front of the temple of prayer to the right harvest, on the north-south axis lies the imperial arch of the sky (Huangqiongyu) with the blue roof topped with a golden ball. This much smaller structure, built in 1530, was designed to receive the shelves of the gods of the Sun and the Moon after the ceremony. The building is surrounded by a completely hermetic wall, the Echos wall, along which the slightest sound runs. In front of the steps leading to the building, the triple sound: all its product from the first stone is reproduced once; second, twice; and the third one, three times. On both sides of the imperial arch of heaven are rectangular buildings now transformed into small museums.

One of them presents an interesting collection of traditional musical instruments and a model reconstituting the processions that followed the emperor during the rites of prayer in the temple.

To the south, the altar of heaven (Huanqiu). Built at the same time as the imperial arch and rebuilt in 1740, this white marble altar is composed of three terraces culminating in the center in a symbolic representation around the imperial figure «9». Nine concentric circles radiate around a central stone: the first circle consists of 9 stones and the outer circle 81 stones. If you are in the middle of the central stone and start talking, your whole body will resonate with vibrations, as a kind of inner echo, experience! In the center of the upper terrace there was also a throne destined for heaven.

The Fasting Hall (Qinggong), located at the east gate. This is where the emperors and their ministers observed a three-day fast before each ceremony. Having dressed a dress embroidered with dragons, the emperor opened the ceremony by burning incense, offered the ancestors and the supreme emperor sacrifices of animals and gifts according to custom, silks, jade tablets… Then a herald read the written prayer of the emperor while as a herald… The latter was prostrated and burned in the furnace with the altar all offerings… as well as the text of prayer addressed to Heaven.

While everything consumed himself was dances, music and songs. Then the emperor went back into his palace in a palanquin different from the one that brought him. Today, the Hall of Fasting has become an exhibition hall presenting various instruments of sacrifice, dating mainly from Qing period.

The temple of heaven is to be visited absolutely. It is with the temple of the Lamas one of the most beautiful in Beijing, and, whatever the season, you will be enchanted by the magic of the places. In order to enjoy the time to enjoy the palaces, the park (with some very old trees quite impressive) and the general ambience of this site, count a big half-day visit. The entire site has been classified as UNESCO's World Heritage Site since 1998.