Saturday, June 30, 2018

Central Beijing

 Jingshan Park

Adjacent to the Forbidden City, a hike up the central hill in Jingshan Park provided us with stunning views of the Forbidden city. Fortunately the pollution wasn't too bad the morning we visited. Throughout the day, we watched the smog roll in. 

Tianamum Square

Prior to visiting Tianamum Square, I watched the video from the 1989 student protests of the man who stood up against the tank. I was a jr. in high school at that time and sad to say, I don't remember this modern history at all. Today, people linger under umbrellas, snapping pictures and stand in lines for hours to file past the preserved body of Mao. The "Tianamum" or Gate of Heavenly Peace is a national symbol of China in the center of the city. Through the gate is the Forbidden City.

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is one of the top things to see in Beijing. The former Imperial Palace of the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty consists of 980 buildings packed into 180 acres. It was hot and we were tired of crowds. It felt like more of the same architecture we've been looking at for the past three years. The Palace museum is located here, but in Taipei we had the National Palace Museum which housed all the Chinese artifacts that China sent there for protection during the war. I really believe we made it through in record time. We zig-zagged our way around the crowds, seeing the less visited areas.

  

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