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Introduce Some Major and Elective Activities
Beijing
To many people, some aspects of China never changed: the rice
planters bent double, the boy pedaling his 2000-year-old
irrigation pump, the buffalo man, etc. To others, the China
they dream about are temples, pagodas, arched bridges, narrow
alleys, fishing boats, artisans, and monks. It is true that
China has a long history, which many say peaked during the
Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD).
The history of Beijing dates back to 1000BC. From the time of
the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) through the Sui (AD 581-618),
Tang Dynasties, the city was called Ji Cheng (Ji City). In AD
1215 the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan descended on the capital
and established the Yuan Dynasty (1215-1368). When the last
Mongol emperor flooded the country, the mercenary Zhu Yanhang
took Beijing and established the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). In
the 1400s Zhu’s son Yongle built many of Beijing’s famous
structures such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of
Heaven. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Beijing and much
of China were subject to invaders and rebels: the Anglo-French
troops, the Taiping Rebellion (1850-68) and the Boxer
Rebellion of 1900, championed by the Empress Cixi (1835-1908).
The revolution of 1911 ended the Qing Dynasty and declared the
Republic of China with Dr. Sun Yatsen as president. In 1937
the Japanese invaded Beijing and the Kuomintang with Chiang
Kaishek as president retreating west to the city of Chongqing.
During the civil war after Japan’s defeat in 1945, Mao Zedong
achieved victory in 1949 while the Koumintang leaders fled to
Taiwan.
The Great Wall
 When Richard Nixon visited the Great Wall in 1972, he blurted out: It sure is
a great wall. With its 6400km across the northern periphery of China, the Great Wall winds a distance longer than the
width of the United States and is the only manmade structure visible from the moon. The wall was, initially, begun 2000 years
ago during the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), when China was unified under Emperor Qin Shihuang. To many people, the Wall
never did perform its function as a defense line. It’s about
courage, imagination, and symbol, which like a dragon (a guardian), goes up and down mountainsides.
Enjoy your walk along one of the greatest achievements of
civilization.
The
Forbidden City
 This history-saturated palace complex was home to two
dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing. Constructed by
the Ming emperor Yongle between 1406 – 1420 and with its 800
buildings and 9000 chambers, the Forbidden City is the largest
and best-preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China. In
the last 120 years of Manchu Rule, the Qing Dynasty had been
in decline. When the Empress Cixi fled from the Forbidden
City, the Boxers, the foreign powers and the Muslim Chinese
soldiers controlled the city.
The Ming Tombs
 In 1409 Emperor Yongle commissioned his tomb to be built on the outskirts of the capital. A total of 13 emperors, 23 empresses, 8 concubines and one
prince were buried there. It starts with a Sacred Way, lined
with stone ministers, soldiers, and mythical beasts. Open to
the public are three tombs: Chang Ling (the largest tomb),
Ding Ling (the only tomb where you can descend into the
Underground Palace) and Zhao Ling.
Ancient Observatory
 It dates back to Kublai Khan’s days and the Yuan Dynasty (Mongol, 1115-1234).
The bronze instruments including celestial globe and
altazimuth were built between 1659-1673, a unique mix of East
and West.
Southeast Corner Watchtower
 It dates back to the Ming Dynasty. During the Boxer Rebellion (1900),the
Allied Forces (the Eight-Nation Force) overwhelmed the
rebellion after a lengthy engagement and their signatures
etched in the walls.
Lama Temple
(Tibetan Lamasery)
 Constructed in 1694 and converted into a lamasery in 1744, it successfully
combines Mongol, Tibetan and Manchu architectural elements. In
1792 the Emperor Qianlong instituted a new administrative
system involving two golden vases. One was kept at the Jokhang
Temple in Lhasa, to be employed for determining the
reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, while the other was kept at
the Lama Temple for the lottery used for choosing the next
Panchen Lama.
Prince Gong’s Residence
 One of the few royal King residences in Old Beijing, it is decorated with
rockeries, plants, pools, pavilions, corridors and elaborately
carved gateways.
Mao Zedong Mausoleum
Admission is free, but you have to pay Y10 to check your bags
and camera at the entrance. They may ask for your passport.
Dongyue Taoist Temple
 It dates back to Yuan Dynasty. There are several fascinating halls such as
the Life and Death (the Final Indictment), the Wandering
Ghosts, Increasing Good Fortune and Longevity, the Flying
Birds, the Animal Department, and the Copper Beam Stone, which
could bring good luck.
Rickshaw Tour
 A Rickshaw tour around Beijing’s humble passageways may give you a taste of
real life beyond the must-see sights and shopping mall glitz.
The historic hutong (passageways) have the oldest courtyards,
where Genghis Khan’s horsemen camped in the new capital of the
Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368).
Shanghai
The Bund
 This is a mile-long strip of some of the best-preserved Art Deco Buildings in
the world and China’s most famous boulevard. Back in
Shanghai’s heyday, the Bund was lined with European banks and
trade houses. Famous historical buildings such as the Shanghai
Mansion, was the military headquarters for both Japan and the
US; the Peace Hotel (formerly the Cathay Hotel and the finest
Art Deco hotel in the Far East) held regular guests like
Charlie Chaplin, Noel Coward, and Marlene Dietrich in the
thirties; Huangpu Park, the first park opened after the Opium
War, then known as the British Public Gardens; the City
Government Building, the former English Consulate; etc.
Pudong
New Area
 Across the river, the architecture of Pudong is the world’s most grandiose
building project since the Great Wall. The spectacular
skyscraper Jin Mao Tower, the third-tallest building in the
world, designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
and surrounded by a dense forest of fancifully shaped
high-rises. The Oriental Pearl TV Tower, a soaring pink-and
silver assemblage of pieces from a schoolchild’s molecular
model, glowing ghoulishly in green light, symbolizes today’s
Shanghai.
The Grand Theater
The stunning Grand Theater, designed by Jean-Marie Charpentier,
rises around the elegant chocolate box that contains the main
auditorium, supporting on their tops a vast quarter-moon
wedge.
The Shanghai Museum
 It was designed by the city’s most famous architect, Xing Tonghe, to evoke a
ding, an ancient bronze food kettle. The building is round
with four arches on top at the cardinal points.
The
Yuyuan Garden
It is one of the best-preserved Ming Dynasty pleasure gardens
in China. Built in the sixteenth century by an imperial
official named Pan Yunduan as a gift for his father. A glimpse
of the dozens of open-air towers and pavilions such as the
Hall of Heralding Spring, the Tower for Beholding the Moon,
and the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion gives you the way of life
in Ming Dynasty Shanghai, where a party was to get drunk and
eat cake in a pavilion, gaze at the moon, and write poetry.
Longhua Pagoda and Temple
 It was first built in AD 274 and then rebuilt in the early Song Dynasty in
the tenth century. There are five halls with courtyards: the
Laughing Buddha Hall, the Hall of the Heavenly King, the Grand
Hall, the Three-Sage Hall and the Buddhist Abbot Chamber.
Teahouse
 Tea—Oolong, Dragon Well, Pu-erh, Mao Feng, and Gun Powder-- is a simple
beverage, but it contains worlds. If you want to experience a
traditional tea ceremony at the teahouse you’ll be greeted
with gentle sounds and the smell of incense. If you go to the
Huxingting Teahouse, an eccentric five-sided teahouse pavilion
in the middle of a placid rectangular pool, you have to cross
the zigzag bridge of Nine Turnings, designed to protect the
building from ghosts, which can’t turn corners.
You will be amazed
how quickly and effectively you will be able to communicate in
Chinese!
Learn, Practice, and Improve Your Chinese Everyday During the
Trip! |
