Where To Go
Beijing has fascinating districts and neighborhoods to stroll. However, the main attractions are scattered throughout this sprawling city, so you’ll be taking frequent taxi, bus, or subway rides no matter where your hotel is located. Following the ancient city plan, we have divided the capital like a compass, with the downtown sights in the center surrounded by quadrants to the north, south, east, and west.
The main urban area of Beijing covers 750 sq km (290 sq miles), with the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square at the center. Chang’an Avenue bisects these two sites and forms the capital’s long, wide east–west axis. A north–south axis runs 8 km (5 miles) from the Temple of Heaven through the Forbidden City to the Drum and Bell towers. Old Beijing, once surrounded by massive city walls and nine towering gates, is now encircled by a modern subway and a major expressway, the Second Ring Road, 231⁄2 km (141⁄2 miles) around. In turn, a Third Ring Road, 48 km (30 miles) around, encompasses most of urban Beijing, although the city is bulging outward toward the Fourth and Fifth Ring roads.
The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, separated by the main east–west thoroughfare, Chang’an Avenue, stand at the center of downtown Beijing. They are convenient references for locating the attractions in the north, south, east, and west districts of the city.
City Center
The center of the city contains Beijing’s outstanding historical site, the Forbidden City. Across Chang’an Avenue to the south is the capital’s premier modern site, Tiananmen Square. Just east of the Forbidden City is Beijing’s most important shopping street, Wangfujing Dajie. These three places happen to be within walking distance of each other, a rarity for sightseeing in the capital.
Forbidden City
Completed by the Emperor Yongle in 1420, the Forbidden City (Zijin Cheng) in the center of Beijing was the home to 24 consecutive rulers of China during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. The 9-m (30-ft) walls enclose 74 hectares (183 acres) of magnificent halls, palaces, courtyards, and imperial gardens, and the rooms and chambers number nearly 10,000. The Chinese call the Forbidden City the Palace Museum (Gu Gong), and it is indeed a museum of imperial architecture, artifacts, and private collections of the emperors.
The main entrance is from the south, through the Gate of Heaven (Tiananmen), the large archway decorated with Chairman Mao’s portrait facing Chang’an Avenue and Tiananmen Square. The ticket booth is due north along a central corridor at the Meridian Gate (Wumen), where audio tapes can be rented in a variety of languages. Beyond the Meridian Gate is the Outer Court, which contains three magnificent ceremonial halls and their vast courtyards. The Meridian Gate is connected to the first great hall by the Gate of Great Harmony, which has five white marble bridges.
The first hall of the Outer Court, the Hall of Great Harmony (Tai He Dian), contains the emperor’s Dragon Throne. The second hall, the Hall of Middle Harmony (Zhong He Dian), contains a smaller throne, from which emperors addressed their ministers. The final hall of the Outer Court, the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Bao He Dian), is where emperors received China’s best students from the annual imperial examinations that determined who would enter the bureaucracy. All three halls date from 1420 but were renovated or rebuilt under the Qing emperors.
Between the Inner and Outer courts are the Eastern Exhibition Halls, requiring a detour to the right as one proceeds north. The Hall of Clocks, located in the Hall of Worshipping Ancestors (Feng Xian Dian), contains the imperial collection of timepieces, many of them 18th-century gifts from England, America, and Europe. Nearby is the Hall of Jewelry, housed in the Palace of Tranquillity and Longevity (Ning Shou Gong), with another display of royal treasures, including robes worn by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The Empress Dowager’s private theater, Emperor Qianlong’s rock garden, and the Nine Dragon Screen (Jiu Long Bi), a 30-m (96-ft) ceramic mosaic created in 1773, are also located in this section of the Forbidden City.
Three private pavilions make up the Inner Court, located on the central axis in the northern portion of the Forbidden City. These halls were used as residences by the emperors and their families. The imperial concubines and eunuchs also lived here, with household staff often numbering over 1,000. The first pavilion is the Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qian Qing Gong), the private residence of the Ming emperors. The second is the Hall of Union (Jiao Tai Dian), which contains the throne of a Qing empress. The final hall is the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity (Kun Ning Gong), where the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, was married as a child in 1922.
Near the northern gate to the Forbidden City is the Imperial Garden (Yu Hua Yuan), filled with small pavilions, ancient cypress trees, and complex rookeries, all built during the Ming Dynasty. The final major pavilion is the Hall of Imperial Peace (Jin An Dian), a Daoist temple to Xuanwu, the God of Fire.
Tiananmen Square
Occupying 40 hectares (99 acres) directly south of the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square (Tiananmen Guangchang) is the largest public square on earth. This vast expanse did not exist during the time of the emperors, but in the 20th century it became China’s primary public meeting place for national ceremonies and political demonstrations. It was enlarged to its present size under Mao Zedong. To celebrate the golden anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on 1 October 1949, Tiananmen Square was recently renovated, with granite replacing the old paving blocks.
The 500-year-old Qianmen (Front Gate), one of the original nine gates of the city wall, still stands at the south end of Tiananmen Square (next to the Arrow Tower). Most of the other gates fell when the wall was demolished during the modernization of Beijing in 1958–1959. This towering edifice, which houses a photographic exhibition of old Beijing, can be climbed for a view of the capital. The imperial court once passed through here on its annual procession to the Temple of Heaven.
Also located on the south side of Tiananmen Square is the Mao Zedong Mausoleum (Mao Zhuxi Jinian Bei), opened in 1977, a year after the Chairman’s death. Especially popular with Chinese tourists, it consists of a reception hall — with a statue of the Great Helmsman seated on his “throne” — and an inner chamber, where Mao lies in state in a crystal sarcophagus. Visitors maintain a respectful silence and are quickly ushered through to a gift shop at the back.
The Monument to the People’s Heroes (Renmin Yinxiong Jinian Bei), on the west side of the square, became internationally renowned when it served as the command post for pro-democracy demonstrators during the 1989 occupation of Tiananmen. The granite obelisk, 38 m (124 ft) high, was erected in 1958. It contains calligraphy carved in the hand of Chairman Mao and is engraved with stirring scenes of a century of Chinese revolutionary history.
The massive Great Hall of the People (Renmin Dahui Tang) borders the west side of Tiananmen Square for nearly 1 km (over half a mile). It opened in 1958 and has served as China’s legislative headquarters ever since. Whenever the National People’s Congress is not in session, the Great Hall is open to visitors, who can enter its banquet halls, 32 reception rooms (one for each province and region), and glittering main auditorium, which holds up to 10,000 delegates.
The east side of the square is home to the large courtyard halls of two museums. To the north is the Museum of the Chinese Revolution (Zhongguo Gemin Lishi Bowuguan), with over 10,000 items that document revolutionary politics, most focusing on events in the early history of the Chinese Communist Party (1919–1949).
The Museum of Chinese History (Zhongguo Lishi Bowuguan), to the south, is of more general interest. It ranks among China’s top museums and has the nation’s largest holdings. Its 300,000 priceless artifacts, displayed on two levels, are arranged chronologically from the Stone Age through the final dynasty, the Qing. Although bereft of up-to-date display cases and featuring explanations written in Chinese only, this museum provides the most exhaustive overview of Chinese civilization — illustrated with national treasures — of any gallery in China.
Wangfujing Street
Beijing’s top shopping street is also the site of many cultural and historic attractions. Wangfujing Street (Wangfujing Dajie) begins a few blocks east of the Forbidden City and runs north from Chang’an Avenue.
The Beijing Hotel (Beijing Fandian) began as the “Grand Hotel de Pekin” under foreign management in 1917, has had several wings added over the decades, and is worth strolling through today as an architectural museum of Beijing’s evolution in the 20th century. Wangfujing itself has a long history, serving as the exclusive neighborhood of the well-connected and the rich during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Westerners moved to the district in the late-19th century, and the street was known as Morrison Street for a time, after a London Times correspondent. Tradesmen had long done business in the neighborhood’s tiny attached lanes, which are today filled with an assortment of tea shops, silk stores, art galleries, street markets, and modern shopping plazas.
Beijing’s grandest modern shopping mall is Sun Dong An Plaza (at No. 38 Wangfujing): seven levels of foreign boutiques, supermarkets, and fast-food outlets. Across the street is the Wangfujing Department Store (at No. 255), once China’s most up-to-date emporium but today something of an amusing throwback to the 1950s. Farther up the street is Beijing’s best stop for book browsers, the Foreign Language Bookstore (at No. 235), boasting the capital’s largest collection of non-Chinese books and magazines. Cross the street again to find St. Joseph’s Catholic Church (Dong Tang), the “East Church” that was leveled during the Boxer Rebellion (1900) and immediately rebuilt; it is now open for Sunday masses (in Chinese and Latin only).
At the north end of Wangfujing Street is the China Art Gallery (Zhongguo Meishuguan), the national art gallery of China. Within this monumental museum, built in 1959 in the Chinese style, are 14 galleries with contemporary as well as traditional artworks. There are artists at work in its studios, and recent works can be purchased in the gift shop.
At the south end of Wangfujing (one block west, on Dongdan Street), near an open-air stamp and coin market, is the Capital Hospital (Xiehe Yiyuan), which has an emergency clinic for foreigners. It was founded in 1915, located in the mansion of a Qing Dynasty prince, and underwritten by American millionaire John D. Rockefeller. It was previously known as the Peking Union Medical Hospital.
Nearby, at the intersection of Wangfujing and Chang’an Avenue, is the capital’s oldest site, the recently unearthed remains of a 20,000-year-old Stone Age settlement, complete with human fossils, buffalo bones, and hunting tools. Ironically, it is situated in the basement of one of Beijing’s newest attractions: the huge Oriental Plaza complex.
North Beijing
The neighborhoods north of the Forbidden City are the most scenic in Beijing, encompassing imperial parks and lakes, temples and towers, princely mansions, and some of the city’s most interesting older neighborhoods.
An atmosphere of imperial leisure is cast by Jingshan Park (Jingshan Gongyuan), also called Coal Hill (Meishan), rising immediately north of the Forbidden City. Jingshan was built by hand from soil dredged out of the palace moat in the early-15th century. A ten-minute hike to the summit at the Pavilion of Everlasting Spring (Wanchun Ting) is rewarded by the finest view possible of the Forbidden City and its golden-tiled palaces. To the right (west) of the old Forbidden City is a new version, Zhongnanhai, where China’s communist leaders are ensconced today (strictly off-limits to all visitors).
Beihai Park
Beijing’s oldest imperial garden, Beihai Park (Beihai Gongyuan), was built on the capital’s largest lake over 800 years ago. Near the south entrance, in the Round City (Tuan Cheng), is a large ceremonial vessel of green jade presented in 1265 to Kublai Khan, who built a palace here and entertained Marco Polo on these lake shores in the 13th century.
Scenic Hortensia Island (Qionghua Dao), built from the soil excavated to create Beihai’s lake, is crowned by the White Pagoda (Bai Ta), one of Beijing’s landmarks. Tibetan in style, this dagoba commemorates a visit by the Dalai Lama in 1651 and measures 36 m (118 ft) in height. At its foot on Jade Hill, to the south, is Yongan Temple (Yongan Si), a well-preserved Lamaist Buddhist complex. The north shore of the island is bordered by a covered walkway, known as the Painted Gallery, and a cluster of Qing Dynasty imperial halls. Located here is a traditional restaurant, Fangshan, founded by chefs who once cooked for the last emperor in the Forbidden City.
On the western shore of Beihai’s lake are several pavilions and gardens built during the Qing Dynasty, including a fine rock and water garden, Hao Pu Jian, where the Empress Dowager Cixi listened to music. The Studio of the Painted Boat (Hua Fang Zhai) is another shore garden, built by Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century, famous for its large square stone pool. On the northern shore of the lake is the Studio of the Serene Mind (Jing Xin Zhai), a favorite retreat of China’s last emperor, Puyi. On the eastern shore is a double-sided Nine Dragon Screen, created in the 18th century from glazed tiles, similar to the more famous version in the Forbidden City.
The pavilions, pagodas, and rookeries on the northeast shore are known collectively as the Gardens Within Gardens, where the imperial court once enjoyed the lake. Its most arresting site is Little Western Heaven (Xiao Xi Tian), which consists of a square pagoda and four towers, erected as a shrine to the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin) in 1770. Tour boats depart the eastern shore from Five Dragons Pavilion to Hortensia Island.
Today, Beihai lake is no longer restricted to the imperial court, and it is the most popular spot in Beijing to rent a rowboat in the summer or to ice-skate in the winter.
Back Lakes and Hutongs
Central Beijing’s three front lakes, Nanhai, Zhonghai, and Beihai, run along the west side of the Forbidden City from Chang’an Avenue north to where they connect with the three Back Lakes (Shi Sha Hai), known as Qianhai, Houhai, and Xihai. These lakes once comprised the route used to ship grain and luxuries via the Grand Canal to the Forbidden City. Later, this was the waterway employed by imperial barges when the emperor desired an outing. These interconnected lakes are marvelous places to stroll. The Back Lakes District contains many landmarks of old Beijing — from princely mansions to old temples and gardens — but it is best known for its colorful alleyways and traditional courtyard houses.
At the northern tip of the Back Lakes is Huifeng Temple (Huifeng Si). Perched on a tiny rocky isle in Xihai Lake, it is a wonderful spot for a lake view and a picnic. East of this temple, on the north side of the Second Ring Road, is Deshengmen Arrow Tower, a gate and archers’ tower from the Ming Dynasty that survived the demolition of the great city wall. Inside is a small museum devoted to the history of the local hutong neighborhoods. In the gate’s courtyard are a coin museum and antiques market.
On the eastern shore of Houhai Lake, the middle of the three Back Lakes, is the Soong Ching-ling Residence (Song Ching Ling Guzhu), where the famous Soong sister who married Sun Yat-sen lived from 1963 until her death in 1981. Her estate and its 200-year-old classical garden are now a museum, filled with photographs and heirlooms of her remarkable life. On the same lake shore is Guanghua Temple (Guanghua Si), a small Buddhist complex that has returned to life after being severely damaged by rampaging Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Nearly two dozen monks reside here.
A few blocks east of the Guanghau Temple are Beijing’s historic Drum Tower (Gu Lou) and Bell Tower (Zhong Lou). Both can be climbed for splendid views of the Back Lakes District. The Drum Tower (open 9am–4:30pm daily; free) is the more interesting of the two. The capital’s first Drum Tower, from which the hours of the day were signaled with drums, was built here by Kublai Khan in 1272, rebuilt by Ming Emperor Yongle in 1420, and renovated under the Qing emperors. A side stairway leads to the balcony, where one of the 24 original watch drums remains, along with what’s claimed to be the world’s largest drum (made in 1990).
Qianhai, the most southern of the Back Lakes, connects to the lake in Beihai Park. It is famous for its views of the Western Hills. Under the willow trees on its western shore, vendors set up an enormous outdoor market (known as the Lotus Flower Market, or Lianghua Shichang), which sells food and hosts amateur Chinese opera singers in the evenings.
On the west side of the Back Lakes is Prince Gong’s Mansion (Gong Wang Fu), Beijing’s best-preserved example of an imperial mansion. Prince Gong, brother to an emperor and father of China’s last emperor, Puyi, occupied this estate in the mid-19th century, making use of its 31 halls and pavilions as his private residence. The estate contains numerous courtyards, arched bridges, ponds, rock gardens, and its own pagoda.
The neighborhoods of the Back Lakes District are filled with the hutongs (alleys) and siheyuans (courtyard houses) that were characteristic of urban Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties. They are common even today, with nearly half of the capital’s population living in some form of rectangular courtyard compound. Nevertheless, hutongs and siheyuans are endangered symbols of Beijing’s past, constantly under threat of urban renewal. Fewer than 2,000 courtyard dwellings are preserved in cultural protection zones. Although it would have once been occupied by a single rich family (plus servants), a courtyard house today is shared by many families.
The hutongs can be toured on your own — on foot, by rented bicycle, or by hiring one of the canopied pedicabs in the area. But most visitors prefer a guided tour. The Beijing Hutong Tourist Agency (Tel. 6615-9097), which books tours through hotel desks, has a fleet of red-canopied pedicabs led by an English-speaking guide. Its hutong tour combines many of the sights in the Back Lakes District with the opportunity to step inside a courtyard house and talk with its modern-day residents.
Lama Temple and Confucius Temple
Beijing’s most popular Buddhist complex is the Lama Temple (Yong He Gong). Built in 1694 for a prince who became the Qing Emperor Yongzheng, it was converted to a temple in 1744. Under the reign of Qianlong the temple served as the chief center of Tibetan Buddhism (Yellow Hat sect) outside of Lhasa. The Lama Temple is large and ornate, with about 200 monks in residence today.
Its five central worship halls are spacious. Between the first and second halls is the capital’s oldest incense burner (1747). The throne of the Dalai Lama is in the fourth worship hall (Falun Dian). The final hall contains the Lama Temple’s most revered statue, a 23-m (75-ft) image of the Buddha carved from a Tibetan sandalwood tree, its head peeking out of the pavilion’s third story. The side halls have large collections of cast and carved Buddhist figures, including many Tantric statues whose more explicit features are discreetly draped in colorful silk scarves.
Across the street from the usually packed Lama Temple is the serene Confucius Temple (Kong Miao), the largest shrine to the great philosopher outside of Confucius’ hometown in Qu Fu. Built in 1306, the complex was long part of the Imperial College (Guozi Jian), and its courtyards teem with scores of carved stone tablets honoring students who passed the nationwide civil service examinations from the time of Kublai Khan.
The most interesting display is located in the long side building on the eastern wall. It is a museum of Beijing history that furnishes a comprehensive overview, with signs in English and Chinese. In another hall of the Confucius Temple is a complete edition of the Confucian classics carved in stone. Near the entrance of the temple (just inside the main gate) is the Donald Sussman Center for Chinese Antiquities, opened in 1995. At the north end of the complex there is a statue of Confucius and a collection of 18th-century stone drums used in Confucian ceremonies.
South Beijing
Few tourists venture into the Xuanwu and Chongwen districts south of Chang’an Avenue and Tiananmen Square except to visit the Temple of Heaven and perhaps to walk along the charming Liulichang Culture Street. But there are other sights of interest.
The Foreign Legation, where foreign governments maintained their own autonomous quarter in Beijing from 1860 to 1937, lies east of Tiananmen Square. No longer the location of the diplomatic compounds in the capital, this district still contains many former embassies, clubs, barracks, churches, and commercial buildings, most now converted to Chinese institutes, banks, and offices. The architecture is fascinating. Located along Taijichang Dajie (the former Customs Street), directly south of Dongchang’an Jie (Chang’an Avenue East), are the old Austrian Legation (now the Institute of International Studies), the Italian Legation (now the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries), the private Peking Club (now the Beijing People’s Congress), and the French Legation and French Barracks (now the offices of the Chinese Workers Union).
Westward along Jiaominxiang toward Tiananmen Square are the neo-Gothic St. Michael’s Church, built in 1902 by the French and still active. You’ll also find the German Hospital (now the Beijing Hospital) here, and the former embassies of Germany, France, Spain, Holland, and Russia. North up Zhengyi Lu (the former Canal Street) back toward Chang’an Avenue are the former Japanese Legation (now the Beijing Mayor’s office) and the British Legation, once the largest Western stronghold in Beijing (occupied from 1860 to 1959), now the stronghold of the Chinese security services.
Southwest of Tiananmen Square, in the city’s Xuanwu District, is the Ox Street Mosque (Niu Jie Qingzhen Si), the center of Beijing’s most vibrant Muslem quarter. Here the capital’s 200,000 people of the Hui minority — largely indistinguishable from Beijing’s Han Chinese majority — practice many of the ways of Islam, which arrived in China from the far western regions of the Silk Road during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). This mosque, originally constructed in the year 996, is Chinese in style but contains a six-sided astronomical tower, a bathhouse, an Islamic prayer hall facing Mecca, a minaret for calling the faithful to prayer, and tombs of Moslem leaders dating to the time of Kublai Khan.
Southwest Beijing is also the location of the city’s main Catholic church, South Cathedral (Nan Tang), also known as Mary’s Church. It was constructed on the site of missionary Matteo Ricci’s residence in 1650 and rebuilt for the last time in 1904 after being destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion. Offering masses in Chinese, Latin, and English, South Cathedral has a rock garden dedicated to the Virgin near its southern entrance on Qianmen Street West.
The Temple of the Source of Law (Fayuan Si), near the Ox Street Mosque, dates from the Tang Dynasty (696) and houses a national Buddhist college and religious publishing house. In addition to dozens of novice monks in training, this large temple is famous for its Ming- and Qing-era statues and bronzes, carved stone tablets, bells, paintings, and incense burners. The last of its six halls contains a large reclining Buddha 6 m (191⁄2 ft) long.
Grand View Park (Daguan Yuan), located at the southwest corner of the lower Second Ring Road, is one of Beijing’s newest parks, opened in 1986 on the former site of the imperial vegetable gardens. Built to re-create the classic garden portrayed in the popular Chinese novel The Dream of the Red Chamber, it is filled with traditional features of 18th-century Mandarin estates: lakes, pavilions, arched bridges, and pagodas.
The Chongwen District of southeast Beijing contains three popular attractions. Panjiayuan (known variously as the Dirt Market or Ghost Market) is the capital’s top open-air market for antiques and curios, best visited as early as possible on Sunday mornings. The Natural History Museum (Ziran Bowuguan) has China’s best display of dinosaur skeletons. It is located near south Beijing’s leading attraction, the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan).
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), built under Ming Emperor Yongle in 1420 as a site for sacred rites, is located directly south of the Forbidden City. Today the site is called the Temple of Heaven Park (Tiantan Gongyuan). The emperor would lead a procession from the palace to the altar here to perform the annual rites and sacrifices to heaven. One of China’s most remarkable architectural works survives from that era of imperial ritual, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (Qinian Dian), a circular hall with blue-tiled roofs capped by a golden sphere. The entire shrine was constructed without nails or cross beams, its magnificent arched ceiling supported by 28 carved pillars. This hall survived until 1889, when lightning burned it to the ground, but the reconstruction is superb, and the round hall has become an emblem of imperial Beijing. Unfortunately, its ornate interior can only be glimpsed from outside, since visitors are no longer allowed within.
Two other important monuments survive in Tiantan Park, both located on the axis running south from the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huang Qiong Yu), built in 1530, resembles the Hall of Prayer; stone tablets used in the winter solstice rituals were once stored here. It is surrounded by Echo Wall, into which visitors attempt to whisper messages that can be heard by friends at distant points along the wall. The southernmost monument is the Circular Altar (Yuan Qiu), an open platform dating from 1530 where silk was once burned as a sacrifice to the heavenly powers. Its acoustics are said to allow orations to be broadcast for miles in all directions.
Temple of Heaven Park is an excellent place to take a morning stroll. It’s popular with locals, including students seeking a quiet bench for reading and citizens performing their morning tai chi exercises.
Liulichang Culture Street and Dazhalan Mall
The flavor of the old capital’s commercial districts is best preserved along Liulichang Culture Street (Liulichang Xijie and Liulichang Dongjie) and the Dazhalan Mall (Dazhalan Jie), two conjoined avenues south of Tiananmen Square that run east-to-west for over 11⁄2 km (1 mile).
Liulichang Culture Street, the shopping haunt of scholars and antiques fanciers since the Ming Dynasty, was restored in the 1980s. Its tile-roofed shops sell curios, antiques, traditional art supplies, scrolls, paintings, prints, and old books. Among its renowned shops are Rongbaozhai (art and art supplies), the China Bookstore (old books), Jijuge (a teahouse featuring clay figures from tombs), and Wenshenzhai (former purveyor of fans and paper lanterns to the Qing Dynasty).
Liulichang merges with Dazhalan Mall, a cobblestone street closed to motor traffic that offers still more window-shopping: historic outlets for traditional herbal medicines, shoes, pickles, and silk fabric and clothing. The east end of the Dazhalan pedestrian mall is intersected by Zhubaoshi Jie (Jewelry Street), once the major theater and brothel district of Beijing and now the site of a lively sidewalk bazaar. Zhubaoshi Street connects Dazhalan directly to Qianmen and Tiananmen Square.
East Beijing
The areas east of Tiananmen Square along Chang’an Avenue and northeast up the Third Ring Road (both sections of the vast Chaoyang District) have received the brunt of Beijing’s modernization. Here Chang’an Avenue changes its name to Jianguomenwai Dajie, the location of some of China’s finest international hotels and Beijing’s best shopping opportunities. The same can be said for the northeast section of the Third Ring Road, where major hotels and shopping plazas are also concentrated, along with China’s first Hard Rock Cafe. Located between these two stretches is the Sanlitun Diplomatic Compound, which has the capital’s liveliest nightlife. The shops, cafés, parks, and historic sites of east Beijing attract thousands of international visitors by day and after dark.
Jianguomen
The eastern section of Chang’an Avenue, between the Second and Third ring roads, is known as Jianguomen (after one of old Beijing’s nine city gates, now the site of a subway station). A number of international hotels have located here, and there also numerous shopping opportunities
At the intersection of Jianguomenwai Dajie and the Third Ring Road East there is a major shopping mall in the massive China World Trade Center, where outlets range from China’s first Starbucks coffee shop and a cyber-café to an ice-skating rink. Additional shopping options along Jianguomenwai Dajie include the Friendship Store, the best place to browse for Chinese gifts and souvenirs, and the Silk Alley Market (Xiushui Shichang), the city’s most popular open-air clothing market. Once celebrated for its silks and bargain prices, the crowded Silk Alley stalls are now filled with name-brand, logo, and knockoff designer sportswear. Running north for several blocks from Jianguomenwai Dajie, Silk Alley is a lively bazaar requiring abundant bargaining and haggling skills; there are no set prices. The market leads into a quiet, modern foreign diplomatic quarter, home to embassies including those of Ireland and the US.
Just north of Silk Alley and the Friendship Store is Ritan Park (Ritan Gongyuan), location in imperial days of the Altar of the Sun. The altar — where the emperor performed annual rites — was erected on a hill in 1530 and is today crowned by a pavilion. Ritan Park contains a serene rock garden and fishing pond in its southwest corner. On its northwest side is the large Russian Market (Yabaolu), where Chinese vendors cater to Russian traders with carpets, crafts, and clothing, including leather goods, furs, and boots.
Ancient Observatory
Beijing’s Ancient Observatory (Guguan Xiang Tai) was built in 1442 under the Ming Dynasty. It is at the intersection of Chang’an Avenue and the Second Ring Road East; almost immediately below it is a Beijing subway station. The observatory supplanted one created by Kublai Khan. Inside the brick tower, which looks like a remnant of the old city wall, are astronomical displays, including a gold foil map of the heavens as they were plotted in China 500 years ago. On the open roof is a fine collection of Qing Dynasty bronze instruments (copies) devised by the Jesuit missionaries who resided in Beijing in the 17th century. The view from the terrace of downtown Beijing, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square is superb.
Sanlitun
Located in the heart of a large foreign diplomatic district between Dongzhimenwai Dajie and the Liangma River, Sanlitun has become the nightlife district of Beijing. Many of its 60 or more small cafés — offering international cuisine by day and drinking and music by night — are located on Sanlitun Lu, which has been officially named Sanlitun Bar Street (Sanlitun Jiuba Jie). Many of Beijing’s expatriates and foreign tourists, as well as the city’s younger Chinese, gather here each summer for the sidewalk drinking, dining, and people-watching. On the west side of Sanlitun Lu there are two open-air markets, one selling rattan furniture and bamboo crafts, the other offering Western-style designer-label clothing.
Sanlitun cafés and bars now stretch southeast of Sanlitun Lu down a small lane called Dongdaqiao Xie Jie. This leads to the Workers’ Stadium area and Beijing’s oldest expatriate American-style bar and grill, Frank’s Place. While Sanlitun is devoid of historic sites, it stands out as modern Beijing’s most international neighborhood.
West Beijing
Two of Beijing’s top attractions, the Summer Palace and the Western Hills, are located northwest of the capital’s relentless urban sprawl. This is the beautiful, hilly countryside of the Haidian District (home to China’s top universities and computer technology developers). And closer to city center, the western precincts of Beijing are the site of four major temples, the Beijing Art Museum, and the Beijing Zoo.
Summer Palace
The site of imperial palaces since the reign of Kublai Khan, the Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan) achieved its present form during reconstructions from 1749 to 1764. Emperor Qianlong saw to the expansion of the park, its hills, and its lake, and he added pavilions and halls that stand today. The imperial court used the Summer Palace as its summer home, escaping the heat of central Beijing and the Forbidden City. Today, it is the playground of locals and tourists alike. Many say it is the most beautiful imperial garden in China — a large-scale garden equivalent to a park or estate.
The Summer Palace was twice destroyed after its expansion under the early Qing emperors. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French troops invaded Beijing and ransacked and ruined many of the buildings. Empress Dowager Cixi saw to a complete restoration in 1886, but the Western armies returned in 1900 in retaliation for the siege of the Foreign Legation during the Boxer Rebellion. Undaunted, the Empress Dowager completed a second restoration in 1903. The Summer Palace became her countryside version of the Forbidden City, her residence of choice even when the heat of summer diminished. Like the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace was opened to the public in 1925.
The 280-hectare (700-acre) Summer Palace is dominated by Kunming Lake, which itself is subdivided into West Lake and South Lake by several causeways. Longevity Hill rises above the north shore. Behind its peaks is a version of Beijing’s Back Lakes, created during the Qing Dynasty. The main strolling area is along the north shore of Kunming Lake, where the pavilions and courtyards are linked by the Long Corridor (Chang Lang). This covered promenade stretches 777 m (2,550 ft) from the Eastern Halls west to the Marble Boat. First built in 1750, it consists of 273 crossbeam sections and 4 pavilions. Nearly every exposed portion of its beams, panels, and pillars is decorated with a painted scene from Chinese myth, history, literature, or geography — 10,000 brightly painted panels in all.
Among the important imperial buildings on the east side of the Long Corridor, four are worth viewing. The Hall of Benevolent Longevity (Renshou Dian) is where Empress Dowager Cixi received court members from her Dragon Throne (which is still in place). The Hall of Jade Ripples (Yulan Dian) is where Cixi confined her nephew, Emperor Guangxu, while she ruled in his place. The Hall for Cultivating Happiness (Yile Dian) served as the Empress Dowager’s private viewing box for performances in the adjacent three-story theater, which was built to honor her 60th birthday. Cixi celebrated many of her birthdays at the Summer Palace, and she was especially fond of theatrical performances, in which she sometimes played a role. This theater now contains some of her imperial garments, jewelry, and cosmetics, as well as a Mercedes-Benz said to be the first passenger car in China. The Long Corridor begins at a fourth Qing building, the Hall of Happiness and Longevity (Leshou Tang), where the Empress Dowager slept. The curtained bed, the lamps, and most of the furniture are original.
Midway along the Long Corridor at the foot of Longevity Hill is the Hall of Dispelling Clouds (Pai Yun Dian), where Cixi held her birthday parties. This hall now houses a collection of birthday gifts, including the portrait of the Empress Dowager painted by Holland’s Hubert Vos upon the occasion of her 70th birthday in 1905. The Long Corridor ends at the Pavilion for Listening to the Orioles (Tingli Guan), where there is now a restaurant serving Qing dynasty imperial dishes.
Just beyond this point is the most famous (or perhaps notorious) monument in the Summer Palace, the Marble Boat, known officially as the Boat of Purity and Ease. To Beijingers, it is China’s “ship of fools.” Rebuilt with lavish materials (stone and stained glass) by the Empress Dowager in 1893, this 36-m (118-ft) statue of a boat was restored (it is said) with funds meant to shore up China’s woeful navy, but it was not long before Japan completely humiliated China in battles at sea. Cixi has been blamed ever since for her profligate and selfish ways, combined with her Machiavellian rise from concubine to Empress, popularly held to be the cause of China’s weakness and the fall of the last dynasty. The Summer Palace remains as visible testimony to the extravagance of the late Qing Dynasty at the expense of China’s freedom and prosperity at the beginning of the 20th century.
While many scholars doubt that Empress Dowager Cixi played such a villainous role, her Summer Palace is undoubtedly lavish enough to have launched countless tales of luxury and decadence. Even today the view of Longevity Hill and its scores of tile-roofed pavilions and towers, enjoyed from a pleasure barge drifting across Lake Kunming, is a scene from a dream of old China in which emperors and empresses led lives in gardens of unimaginable splendor. Here even the bridges — connecting lake isles to the palace shores — wouldn’t be out of place in a Ming or Qing scroll painting, particularly the celebrated Seventeen-Arch Bridge (Shiqi Kong Qiao), 150 m (492 ft) long and built of white marble.
Not far from the Summer Palace is the site of the Old Summer Palace (Yuan Ming Yuan). When Emperor Kangxi built this imperial park in the 18th century, it had no equal. However, after its destruction in 1860 by French and British troops, it was left to decay, and the court’s attention turned to restoring the new Summer Palace. All that’s left now in the Old Summer Palace are some of the most haunting ruins in China, particularly in a section known as the Garden of Eternal Spring (Changchun Yuan), where European-style halls, marble fountains, mazes, and a concert stand are now a broken jumble of ornately carved columns and arches. Every few years there are fresh announcements that the Old Summer Palace will be restored to its former glories. For now, it provides a quiet picnic grounds amidst the ruins of an empire.
Western Hills
When China’s rulers really wanted to escape the heat of the city, they went farther west than the Summer Palace to the Western Hills (Xi Shan), romantically known today as Fragrant Hills Park (Xiangshan Gong yuan). Imperial villas first dotted these hillsides — 27 km (17 miles) from Beijing — more than 800 years ago. But it was the Qing Emperor Qianlong who converted the Western Hills into a formal mountain retreat for the enjoyment of the court, complete with its own temples, lakes, gardens, and even a zoo. Late autumn is the favorite season for park visitors these days, when leaves turn a fiery red. However, locals as well as tourists come to the Western Hills year round for the natural beauty and historic sites.
Two renowned temples still survive in the Western Hills. Near the park’s north gate are the four great halls of the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha (Wo Fo Si). In the final hall (Wo Fo Dian) there is a 5-m (16-ft) lacquered statue of the reclining Buddha (dated 1321) about to attain nirvana.
Inside the park’s north gate is an even larger complex, the Temple of the Azure Clouds (Biyun Si), which ascends the hillside. The body of Sun Yat-sen, founder of the modern Chinese Republic, once lay in state here before removal to Nanjing; his hat, coat, and coffin are still at this temple. So, too, is the fascinating Luohan Hall. Luohans are followers of Buddha who achieve enlightenment but choose to stay on Earth to show others the way. The 500 luohans portrayed in this temple’s carved figures range from the ecstatic to the gruesome, from the common to the surreal. Topping the temple is the Diamond Throne Pagoda (Jinggang Baozuo Ta), built in 1748 in the Indian style, with four pagodas and two stupas surrounding a 35-m (115-ft) white pagoda.
The most popular site in the Western Hills is natural: a summit known as Incense Burner Peak (Xiang Lu Feng), named for the image created when fog comes sweeping over it. There is a winding path to the top known as Gui Jian Chou (“Even the Devil is Terrified”) as well as a chair lift (20 minutes each way). At the 557-m (1,827-ft) summit there are pavilions, vendors, and small paths into surrounding forests. There are also fine views of the lakes, temples, pavilions, and pagodas below, which can be explored upon return. On a clear day, one is tempted to linger. Here, there’s an emperor’s view to the southeast, commanding both the pavilions of the Summer Palace and the skyscrapers of downtown Beijing.
White Cloud Temple
Beijing’s most active Daoist complex, Bai Yun Guan, is better known as White Cloud Temple. This is also the capital’s most fascinating religious site, a place of superstition and incense, mystery and spirited worship. As China’s leading indigenous religion, Daoism differs from Buddhism (transplanted from India) not so much in the architecture of its temples and the art of its statuary (these are often quite similar in style) as in its practices and beliefs. Daoism emphasized nature, the individual, and the Way, but in its organized form it relies on a huge pantheon of gods, goddesses, and supernatural icons promising miracles.
At Baiyunguan the first courtyard features the Wind Containing Bridge, where visitors attempt to ensure their good fortune by striking a 17th-century copper bell with coins. In the Spring Hall for the Jade Emperor, worshippers touch the golden feet of statues representing the gods of wealth. In the side halls there are shrines where the devout can appeal to the proper god to cure eye problems, ensure the birth of a son, pass an examination, get a good job, and increase longevity. Every one of these “wishing halls” is usually jammed with locals, who are often dressed in their most expensive clothes for the tour. Festivals on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month are especially lively times to visit. At the rear of the complex there is a large rock garden, a courtyard, and classrooms where many novice monks are trained in Daoism.
Baiyunguan was founded in 739 and received its present name in 1394. Most of the halls date from the Qing Dynasty, although Yuanchen Hall, where visitors try to locate the deity on the zodiac of their birthday, dates from the time of Kublai Khan. Just south of this temple complex is Tianning Si Ta, the Temple of Heavenly Tranquillity Pagoda, built during the Liao Dynasty (907–1125), making it Beijing’s oldest surviving building. The 13-story tower is 58 m (190 ft) high and is decorated with fine Buddhist carvings.
White Pagoda Temple
Extensively renovated and enlarged in 1998, the White Pagoda Temple (Bai Ta Si) is renowned for its Tibetan-style pagoda (usually called a dagoba or stupa). The white pagoda at this temple is larger than the more famous one in Beihai Park. In fact, it is the largest of its type in China, built in 1279 during the reign of Kublai Khan.
The main gate of the White Pagoda Temple (located on the north side of Fuchingmennei Dajie), the first courtyard, and the museum are new. The museum houses many Buddhist artifacts and statues discovered on the temple grounds, as well as a sutra copied out by Emperor Qianlong. This rare manuscript, unearthed in 1978, was composed in the emperor’s own hand in 1753. Beyond the museum to the north are three finely restored prayer halls. The Hall of the Great Enlightened Ones is stuffed with thousands of little Buddhas. The white pagoda itself, rising 51 m (167 ft), is last and, like most dagobas, remains sealed, its holy treasures and relics somewhere beneath or inside the imposing structure.
Five Pagoda Temple
North of the Beijing Zoo, across the Nanchang River, is one of Beijing’s most beautiful sights, the Five Pagoda Temple (Wu Ta Si). Its singular main hall consists of a square stone building 71⁄2 m (25 ft) high, its outside walls decorated with one thousand niches, each containing an engraved Buddha. The hall is crowned with a cluster of five elaborate towering pagodas, with stairs inside leading up to a view from the roof. The five-pagoda building is more Indian than Chinese in style. It was built in 1473, during the early Ming Dynasty.
The temple was originally part of the larger Zhengjue Temple complex (built during the reign of Ming Emperor Yongle in the 1420s and sacked by Western troops in 1860 and 1900). On the same grounds today is the Beijing Stone Engraving Art Museum, an open-air display of over 500 ancient stone carvings and inscribed stone pillars.
Big Bell Temple
Big Bell Temple (Da Zhong Si) received its apt name in 1743, when the largest bronze bell in China was placed here. This huge bell, weighing 34,000 kg (46 tons) and measuring 7 m (23 ft) high, was cast in 1420, just as the Forbidden City was finished. It is on display in its own pavilion at the rear of the Big Bell Temple. Locals often climb the stairs to the top of the big bell and drop coins through an opening for good luck, a ritual that thousands of pilgrims in the past followed.
Since the early 1980s the Big Bell Temple has served as China’s bell museum, with over 700 bells in its collection. A few of the bells are modern (cast to commemorate recent events), and some are from foreign countries, but most are Chinese antiquities. Among the bells displayed in the various halls and pavilions are some that are 4,000 years old. For a small fee, visitors can sound a set of stone chimes that date from the Warring States Period (475–221 b.c.).
Beijing Art Museum
Doubling as museum and temple, the Beijing Art Museum (Zhongguo Meishuguan) is housed in the halls of the Wanshou Temple, the Temple of Longevity. Although the temple, renovated in 1761 by Emperor Qianlong, is no longer active, it contains many old structures, including the bell and drum towers in the first courtyard, which date from 1577. The Empress Dowager Cixi used to lodge overnight in this temple on her voyage by royal barge from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace. The large meditation hall at the center of the temple complex is now an art gallery containing modern Chinese oil paintings. Side halls feature other art exhibits, ceramics, historic relics, and artworks and crafts for sale.
At the rear of Wanshou Temple is a large rock garden with shrines to the gods of three of Buddhism’s sacred mountains in China, two pavilions built in 1761 (one housing a stone tablet with the engraved signature of Emperor Qianlong), and two arched gates constructed in the style of 18th-century Europe.
Beijing Zoo
The Beijing Zoo (Beijing Dongwu Yuan) is the creation of Empress Dowager Cixi, who in 1908 converted this private Ming Dynasty garden estate into a preserve for some 700 exotic animals imported from Germany. The entrance gate dates from the late Qing Dynasty, and many of the exhibition halls seem nearly as old. Even the outdoor pens seem quite dated. With some 6,000 animals the zoo is the largest in China, but despite its notable collection of giant pandas, Siberian tigers, golden monkeys, and red-crowned cranes, the facility is in need of modernization. Few foreign visitors are happy with the size and condition of the cages, although the new Panda Garden, featuring a half-dozen adult pandas and twin babies, is a bit more spacious and a step in the right direction. Most of the zoo’s recent major funding has gone to the creation of the adjacent Beijing Aquarium, a state-of-the-art marine park scheduled to have 50,000 aquatic species in residence.
Excursions
The Great Wall is China’s most popular attraction. From Beijing, splendid sections of the wall can be enjoyed at several locations. Less visited (and less crowded) are two of China’s greatest imperial cemeteries: the Ming Tombs and the Eastern Qing Tombs. Two other major excursions from Beijing are the Peking Man Museum at Zhoudian and the vast imperial retreat and temples of Chengde.
Great Wall
Construction on the Great Wall began as long ago as the fifth century b.c.; it winds across northern China for over 10,000 km (6,200 miles). However, the Great Wall (Wanli Chang Cheng) that most visitors see consists of a few beautifully restored segments near Beijing that were built, extended, or refortified during the Ming Dynasty (a.d. 1368–1644). The Ming builders were the first to finish these massive earthen fortifications with brick. They built a new section of the wall running for 630 km (390 miles) just north of Beijing as a massive buffer and early warning system against invaders from the north. This stratagem was to fail, as the Manchus eventually broke through, overthrew the Ming, seized Beijing, and established the Qing Dynasty in 1644 ��� China’s last imperial line.
Hundreds of thousands of laborers were conscripted over the centuries to extend and repair the Great Wall, and many of them lie buried in its ruins. In the seventh century a.d. over a million workers were said to be involved in this project, but in the centuries since — until the Ming Dynasty — much of the wall fell into ruin. Even today, most of its length has not been kept up, the earthen remnants barely visible. While it is often reported that the Great Wall is the only manmade object visible from the moon, the claim is dubious at best. Still, it is China’s grandest achievement, on par with Egypt’s pyramids and a handful of other ancient wonders of the world.
The Great Wall is best appreciated at four main sites north of Beijing: Badaling, Mutianyu, Simatai, and Juyongguan. Three of these four segments have been carefully refurbished, with the exception of Simatai, which is largely untouched since the days of the early Ming Dynasty. The earthen foundations of the wall and watchtowers, as well as much of the brick-work, are original, most of it 300 to 500 years old, although extensive remodeling and fresh materials have been added.
The look and the feel are authentic enough, once one is on the wall itself, out of sight of the shops, vendors, tour buses, parking lots, and cable cars below. The hordes of tourists are another modern addition, of course, but it is possible at all these sites to walk beyond the crowds. The steep mountain scenery is spectacular and the air is usually quite clear. The sheer steepness of the wall’s stone stairs and the precarious footing provided by the irregular treads are what most surprise first-time visitors. As it snakes up and down the peaks and ridges, the wall conforms to a challenging topography, one that leaves many tourists gasping for breath. But the views from China’s ancient Dragon of Stone make the journey unforgettable.
Carefully restored in 1957, the Great Wall at Badaling, 67 km (42 miles) northwest of Beijing, is the most-visited portion of the wall. The mountain setting is spectacular and the wall rises and falls steeply as it winds up and down the ridges. About 7 m (24 ft) high and 5 m (18 ft) wide, this Ming Dynasty fortification is built of tamped earth, stone, and brick. Beacon towers of stone and brick are mounted at regular intervals. It is possible to walk the stairs of the restored section for about 2 km (11⁄2 miles) before reaching the crumbling remains of the original wall on either end. At the northern terminus, there is a cable car connecting the wall to a parking lot below. The parking lots at the base of the wall are filled with vendors, stores, restaurants, and other modern attractions, including a cinema and a KFC fast-food outlet.
Badaling is crowded, especially from June through September, but it is quite beautiful. Equally attractive is the second-most visited section of the Great Wall at Mutianyu, 88 km (55 miles) northeast of Beijing. Mutianyu was opened to tourists in 1986 to relieve the crowding at Badaling. There is also a cable car at Mutianyu, eliminating the 20-minute hike up to the wall, and at the foot of the wall there is again a village of vendors, shops, and cafés. Mutianyu is one of the oldest restored sections of the Great Wall in the Beijing area, thought to have been built under the Ming rulers nearly 500 years ago. Visitors can walk well over a kilometer (nearly a mile) atop these ramparts from watchtower to watchtower. At either end you can view the crumbling wall running to the horizon, broken but still visible. In the early spring and late fall, particularly on weekdays, the Great Wall at Mutianya is not very crowded. Surrounded by its renowned green forests, it is a pleasant alternative to Badaling.
The Great Wall at Juyongguan, 58 km (36 miles) northwest of Beijing on the way to the Badaling section, is the newest portion of the wall open to tourism (1998) and the nearest to the capital. Juyongguan contains a massive guard tower marking one of the Great Wall’s most celebrated mountain passes. This guard tower, built in 1345, is decorated in Buddhist carvings, with inscriptions in Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and languages of the northern tribes. Some of the temples and parks clustered at the pass in the days of the Ming dynasty have also been restored here. The wall can be walked for 4 km (21⁄2 miles) as it winds over the peaks of the Taihang Mountains.
The least restored, least crowded major segment of the Great Wall near Beijing is at Simatai, 124 km (77 miles) northeast of the capital. Not only is Simatai rather far from the capital, it is also quite uncrowded and unreconstructed. Its stairways and watchtowers resemble those crumbling edifices one can only glimpse from Badaling, Mutianyu, and Juyongguan. The natural scenery is dramatic, and the ruined state of the wall gives Simatai a romantic feel (although there is a cable car to the top). It is also dangerous, with broken stairways leading up some of the 70-degree inclines. Other portions are in such ruins that one must walk along the outside of the wall on steep, narrow paths, where the footing is difficult.
From the village at the base of Simatai there is a half-mile gravel path to the first stairway, which skirts the small Simatai Reservoir. The reservoir divides the Simatai wall from another section, known as Jinshanling, which adventurous hikers can also tackle. Simatai consists of 14 beacon towers, each about 400 m (a quarter mile) apart, which were once used to transmit fire and smoke signals — tower by tower — to the Chinese armies encamped below should an enemy be sighted. The highest of the beacon towers (known as Wangjinglou) stands at an elevation of 986 m (3,235 ft), affording a grand view southwest toward Beijing. Locals say the lights of the capital are visible on clear evenings from here.
Ming Tombs
The valley of the Ming Tombs, 50 km (31 miles) northwest of Beijing, is the final resting place of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors. Courtyards and elaborate pavilions, similar to those in the Forbidden City, cap underground burial chambers where the emperor, with his empress and concubines, is entombed.
Here, a Spirit Way (Shen Dao) 61⁄2 km (4 miles) long — the most renowned graveyard entrance in China — forms a grand introduction to the valley. It is lined with arching entrance gates and an avenue of stone animals (12 pairs of creatures, including lions and elephants) and court officials (6 pairs), the statuary dating from 1435. Inside the Dragon Phoenix Gate are the tombs, of which three have been restored and opened to visitors.
The tomb of Emperor Yongle (Chang Ling) is the largest, although its underground palace, where the emperor and his empress are buried, has not been opened. Nor have the 16 satellite vaults, where Yongle’s concubines are entombed. The massive courtyards and pavilions above Yongle’s burial chambers have been restored, and they house some of the Ming Tombs’ excavated treasures, including imperial armor.
The burial palace of Emperor Wanli (Ding Ling) honors the 13th Ming emperor, who ruled from 1573 to 1620. His burial vaults, 27 m (88 ft) below ground, are made of marble and cover 1,200 sq m (13,000 sq ft). His white marble throne, golden crown, and red coffin (along with the coffins of his wife and first concubine) remain in the tomb. The Zhao Ling tomb is also open but is less impressive.
The Ming Tombs were once a staple of tours to the Great Wall at Badaling, but foreign tourists have seldom been impressed by the site, finding it dank and poorly restored. A more interesting imperial cemetery is the Eastern Qing Tomb site, although it is located at a much greater distance from Beijing.
Eastern Qing Tombs
Nearly as vast and monumental as the Forbidden City, the Eastern Qing Tombs (Dong Qing Ling), 125 km (78 miles) northeast of Beijing, require a considerable daytrip to view. The journey over country roads, while scenic, is slow. Emperor Sun Zhi (1644–1911), the founder of the Qing Dynasty, selected this remote spot in a large mountain valley while on a hunting expedition. It is China’s largest royal cemetery, with the tombs of 5 emperors, 15 empresses, and over 100 members of the Qing court. Three of China’s most famous rulers are buried here, including Emperor Qianlong (1711–1799), Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722), and the notorious Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908).
Like the Ming Tombs, the Eastern Qing Tombs are entered via a long Sacred Way, lined with 18 pairs of stone animals and court officials. The oldest tomb (Xiao Ling) is that of the founder of the Qing Dynasty, Sun Zhi. His tomb is unopened, but the 28 pavilions and halls on the site can be visited. The tomb of Emperor Kangxi (Jing Ling) is also unopened, but its magnificent above-ground halls contain many original imperial treasures, including Kangxi’s Dragon Throne. The tomb of Emperor Qianlong (Yu Ling) is open. Located 54 m (177 ft) underground, it consists of nine immense vaults and the marble coffins of the Manchu emperor and his five favorite consorts.
The most lavish tomb is that of Empress Dowager Cixi. Above her underground palace, inside a sacrificial hall, is a wax museum showing Cixi in full regalia as Goddess of Mercy (her favorite Buddhist deity). The underground palace contains her double gold-and-lacquer coffin. Unfortunately, the coffin was desecrated in 1928 by a warlord who also plundered the tomb’s treasures, including 25,000 pearls and a burial quilt studded with rare pearls. Many of Cixi’s imperial treasures did survive, and are now on display in the galleries above her tomb.
Peking Man Museum
The Peking Man Museum is located 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Beijing in the village of Zhoukoudian, whose name has become synonymous with Chinese paleontology. In the hills and caves of Zhoukoudian archaeologists found the skull of a new ancestral link to mankind, Homo erectus pekinensis — Peking Man. This 1929 discovery suggested that man’s closest ancestor might have lived in Asia as well as Africa. Excavations of the site continued until 1937, when most of the fossils were carried out of war-torn China by foreigners, never to return.
The cave on Dragon Bone Hill, where Peking Man lived 690,000 years ago, showed evidence of a community numbering up to 40 individuals. Nearby caves contained fossils and artifacts from more-recent Stone Age settlements (20,000 to 50,000 years ago). These caves may now be visited, their treasures housed in the nearby Peking Man Museum. Here there are molds of the missing skulls, an array of stone tools, the bones of prehistoric beasts, some human fossils, and a modern statue of Peking Man himself.
Chengde
The small city of Chengde (formerly known in the west as Jehol), 250 km (155 miles) northeast of Beijing, requires an overnight stay for visitors based in the capital. But it’s worthwhile for anyone interested in seeing the monumental remains of the Qing Dynasty, as well as its most spectacular Buddhist temples. Chengde became the imperial resort of the Qing rulers, who built a royal city and park here rivaling that of the Forbidden City and Summer Palace in Beijing.
The Qing rulers never forgot their nomadic Manchu roots, and Emperor Kangxi developed this remote valley in the countryside as a summer court and hunting ground in 1703. It was here that Kangxi’s grandson, Emperor Qinalong, received the first official delegation from the West ever to visit China, a British team headed by Lord Macartney in 1793. And it was here that Lord Macartney refused to kow-tow (bow) before the emperor, ending any hopes for a peaceful opening of the door to trade in the 18th century.
The Chengde Summer Palace today is demarcated by a wall 91⁄2 km (6 miles) around, and its grounds comprise the largest surviving imperial garden in China. Among the palaces and halls still in place are the Front Palace, where the emperors conducted official court business, and nine courtyard halls in plain, rustic style. Beyond this cluster of imperial halls and residences is a large park with lakes, bridges, pavilions, rockeries, and the grasslands and hills where the court enjoyed sports on horseback. There are copies of famous Chinese gardens here, as well as small temples and multilevel viewing pavilions.
Chengde’s other main attractions are the temples in the hills outside the park Many of these “Eight Outer Temples” have a strong Tibetan flavor. All were built under Emperor Qinalong between 1713 and 1779. The Mount Sumera Longevity and Happiness Temple (Xumifushou Miao) commemorates the Panchen Lama’s visit to Chengde in 1779. A copy of the lama’s residence in Shigatse, Tibet, it is crowned by a pagoda decorated in green and yellow tiles. The Small Potala Temple (Putuozongsheng Miao), built in 1769, is even larger and more lavish, covering 22 hectares (54 acres). Its great red hall evokes the Potala Palace in Lhasa, and the arcades within are filled with Buddhist treasures, including sensual figures related to the esoteric Buddhism of the Red Hat sect.
Beyond these and the other temples is Hammer Rock (Bangchui Shan), a massive stone pinnacle that can be reached by ski lift or hiking trails. The view from this 18-m (60-ft) natural tower of the valley below, the imperial park, and the surrounding Buddhist temples reveals the wealth and scale of the Qing Dynasty at its height. In 1820 this imperial summer villa was all but abandoned after Emperor Jiaqing was killed here by a bolt of lightning. Less than a century later, the Qing Dynasty itself was destroyed by Republican forces, ending China’s last period of imperial rule.
