38th parallel: Beijing....following days!

After a cold and an unexpected snowy weather experience, it was dry and we even saw a weak sun. The following days turned into really nice autumn weather. It definitely made strolling around in the city easier and the sites more lovely.

Now we had a more official part of our stay in Beijing but also a chance for more cultural and historical learning. Shopping and just looking to all the vivid and exotic markets filled with many foreigners but mainly Chinese people.

We met with the Swedish Ambassador and his staff,

walked for hours through the diplomatic area and returned to our hotel. Then for me the most surprising day came for…..

Although my primary wish was to see the Great Chinese Wall during our visit in Beijing, I must say that the Summer Palace took my breath away. The nature surrounding the fabulous buildings is beautiful and a variety of palaces, gardens and classical-style of architectural structures is unbelievable. The buildings are not only interesting but also fabulously decorated with fantastic details. If you ever decide to go to Beijing this is without a doubt very worthwhile visiting and easy to get to by subway, Line 4 Beigongmen station.

The Summer Palace (literally "Gardens of Nurtured Harmony") is a palace mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (about 60 meters, 200 feet) and the Kunming Lake (covering 2.2 square kilometers). It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water.

The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), commissioned the work on the imperial gardens on the hill in 1749, and gave Longevity Hill its present-day name in 1752, in celebration of his mother's 60th birthday.

The Summer Palace started out life as the 'Garden of Clear Ripples' in 1750. Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. The palace complex suffered two major attacks—during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. In 1888, it was given the current name, Yihe Yuan. It served as a summer resort for Empress Dowager Cizi, who diverted 30 million taels of silver, said to be originally designated for the Chinese navy, into the reconstruction and enlargement of the Summer Palace.

This diversion of funds away from military sources came just six years before the first, First Sino-Japanese War, which China lost.

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design.

The Forbidden City, is not far located from Tian’anmen Square and gigantic. Both historical sites and the surroundings with their wonderful small streets and shops is a great way to spend a full day. I give you here some historical facts but mainly pictures, which hopefully give you a small inside of the places we had the possibility to visit. Besides all the unbelievable sites, we had a wonderful time being together.

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.

Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 720,000 m² (7,800,000 sq ft). The palace complex exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987, and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

The common English name, "the Forbidden City", is a translation of the Chinese name Zijin Cheng (Chinese: 紫禁城) The Forbidden City, as the residence of the terrestrial emperor, was its earthly counterpart. Jin, or "Forbidden", referred to the fact that no-one could enter or leave the palace without the emperor's permission. Cheng means a walled city.

Today, the site is most commonly known in Chinese as Gùgōng (故宫), which means the "Former Palace".

Then of cause we took a day to walk on the Tiananmen Square and Wangfujing Street…………….. come and take a look with me J

It's all too much to give you a justified impression but truthfully it's very impressive!

Having been active in the bathroom business for many years, I couldn't deprive you from this picture.... Notice the gap in the trousers....making it easy for the toddler to do his/her business and saving diaper costs!

Tiananmen Square is a large City square in the center of Beijing, named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world (440,000 m² - 880 by 500 meters - 960 by 550 yards). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

Outside China, the square is best known in recent memory as the focal point of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, a pro-democracy movement which ended on June 4^th 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing by the government and the death of several hundred civilians.

The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty. Towards the demise of the Ming Dynasty, heavy fighting between Li Zicheng and the early Qing emperors damaged (or perhaps destroyed) the gate. The Tiananmen square was designed and built in 1651, and has since enlarged four times its original size in the 1950s.

For me, this square, the buildings around it, the financial street in Beijing was a flash back to my decade spend working in Russia’s major cities. Much was in the same trend, no not the old Ming Dynasty buildings but most definitely the buildings from the 50’s or later, all the flags and the immense space being used to build the city.

Touristic places, having a drink or just popping into a side street, it all was fabulous to experience!