| Brief Guide to the Top Ten Things to do in Beijing |
For over 500 years this extraordinary and mysterious enclave in the heart of Beijing was the centre of administrative and spiritual power for the whole of the mighty empire of China. Although Beijing had become the capital under the Mongol rule of Kublai Khan (1215-94) and his Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368), the Forbidden City came into being only during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), under Emperor Yongle (reigned 1403-25).
It remained the Chinese emperors' primary residence throughout the ensuing Qing dynasty (pronounced 'Ching'), until revolution finally overthrew imperial rule in 1911. The walled Forbidden City lay within the walled Imperial City, an enclave within and enclave. Some 9000 select inhabitants lived in the Forbidden City: the royal family, top civil servants, elite guards, staff, and the emperor's numerous concubines and eunuchs. This part of Beijing was called the Forbidden City because no one but those invited were allowed in, on pain of death. It was a strange, mystical world, full of symbolism and governed by precise rituals, all reflecting the spiritual role of the emperor as the crucial link between Heaven and Earth, and guardian of China's essential harmony. (This uncanny mixture of power, wealth, ritual traditions, isolation and claustrophobic constraint is captured beautifully in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film 'The Last Emperor'.)
Now fully restored (and under constant restoration), 'The Palace Museum' - as the Forbidden City is officially called - is a stunning complex of some 800 painted, carved and gilded wooden buildings and elaborately sculpted stonework. The Palace Museum includes three grand audience halls and throne rooms (including the Hall of Supreme Harmony, with the Dragon Throne), plus numerous pavilions, shrines, living quarters, courtyards, processional ways, watercourses, gardens and sculptures - all laid out along the spiritually propitious north-south axis.
There are also a handful of small museums, including exhibits of porcelain, jewellery, and precious clocks given to the emperors. All it requires is your imagination to people the Forbidden City with the glittering array of richly costumed figures who once lived and worked here, and gave it meaning. This is an unmissable attraction for anyone sightseeing in Beijing.
If the Forbidden City was the heart of imperial China, Tiananmen Square is the heart of modern China. This vast square - the largest of its kind in the world - was laid out in the early 1950s on the orders of Mao Zedong (1893-1976), following the victory of the Communists in the civil war (1946-9); it was designed to be big enough for parades of up to a million participants. This scale was said to be symbolic of the power of the Chinese people; but Tiananmen Square’s location on the edge of the old Imperial City, just to the south of the Forbidden City, was also symbolic.
At the southern end Tiananmen Square is the fortress-like Front Gate, one of the original Ming-dynasty city gates which - along with its companion further south, the Arrow Tower - controlled traffic through the city walls. At the northern end is the grand Gate of Heavenly Peace, with its seven ornate bridges and five entrances, which used to control traffic to the Forbidden City: the central entrance, once reserved for the emperor, is now hung with a portrait of Mao. (The Imperial City Museum, to the east of the Gate of Heavenly Peace, helps to make sense of the Imperial City's layout, and life within it.)
In the middle of the square is the towering monolith of the Monument to the People's Heroes, and to its south is the elaborate Mausoleum of Chairman Mao, fronted by groups of statues of Communist leaders, Red Army soldiers and workers in classic heroic poses. Inside, if you join the queues, you can file past Mao's embalmed body for a glimpse of this still-revered leader.
On the eastern side of the square is the didactic and predictable Museum of Chinese History and Museum of the Chinese Revolution. Facing this on the western flank is the Great Hall of the People, an imposing and bombastic construction built in just ten months in 1958-9; this is the legislative and ceremonial seat of the National People's Congress and Communist Party of China - effectively the government of China.
It was against this backdrop of intense national symbolism that the prolonged and ill-fated pro-democracy demonstration took place in 1989; brutally crushed by the authorities after 18 days, with scores of tanks and tens of thousands of troops, this act of rebellion made Tiananmen Square into an international symbol of repression.
Behind the Great Hall of the People is the new and controversial Chinese National Grand Theatre (also called the Beijing Opera House), one of Beijing's prestige projects designed to demonstrate the modern face of China - along with those being built for the Beijing Olympics of 2008. The Chinese National Grand Theatre was conceived by the French architect Paul Andreu, whose credibility came under scrutiny when part of his terminal at Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport collapsed in 2004. It is an impressive structure: an opera house, concert hall and theatre have been fitted into a space-age, titanium-wrapped, globular bubble, which has given rise to its nickname the 'Alien Egg'; it is due to open in late 2006.
With its mixture of incredible scale, and imposing grandeur, combined with the stifled truth of the pro-democracy demonstrations Tiananmen Square is another essential highlight of sightseeing in Beijing.
Every visitor to Beijing should get up early and go to a park to witness a unique feature of city life: the city's awakening to the gentle rhythms of mass t'ai chi exercises, the song of caged birds brought out for some air, the pleasures of open-air breakfast, and the cool morning light falling on temples and other historic buildings. There are plenty of excellent parks in the centre of Beijing, such as Beihai Park, with its lake, just to the north-west of the Forbidden City, and Zhongshan Park, between Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City - good places to relax at any time of day, but extra-special in the early morning.
Particularly impressive is one of the largest public parks in the city: the Temple of Heaven Park, which lies about 1.5 km (1 mile) to the south-east of Tiananmen Square. It was developed on scarred ground during the Ming dynasty as a centre for all-important rituals performed by the emperor, who arrived on fixed days at the head of colossal processions of extravagantly attired nobles and officials. The rites and sacrifices took place at three sites still in the park: the ornately-carved Round Altar, the shrine called the Imperial Vault of Heaven, and - the most impressive and famous of them all - the pagoda-like Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. All are round because that, apparently, is the shape of Heaven, while the Earth is square. The Imperial Vault of Heaven is surrounded by the Echo Wall, which also acts as a whispering gallery - a diversion so popular that the numbers of people trying it out often defeat the exercise.
Located 3 km (2 miles) north-east of the Forbidden City, the Lama Temple (or Yonghe Gong) is the largest temple in Beijing - a complex of beautiful and stunningly ornate halls and buildings, with uplifted eaves, galleries, courtyards, statues, and incense burners. Lama Temple was formerly the palatial residence of Prince Yinzhen, who became Emperor Yongzhen (reigned 1722-35); when he moved into the Forbidden City, part of his palace was handed over Buddhist monks from Tibet and Mongolia to serve as a lamasery, and after his death the whole complex became an administrative centre for this branch of Buddhism.
The main halls of Lama Temple are laid out on a north-south axis, each with treasured statues of the Buddha (or Maitreya) and other sacred figures made of bronze and sandalwood.
The royal court of the Qing emperors could escape the summer heat and claustrophobic atmosphere of the Forbidden City by shifting about 10 km (6 miles) to the north-west to their Summer Palace. British and French troops destroyed the Old Summer Palace during the Second Opium War (1856-60); the ruins of this can still be seen in a park slightly to the east. They also destroyed much of the newer Summer Palace - a complex of buildings set close to the large Kunming Lake. But here the buildings were restored for the use of the Imperial family, leaving an impressive cluster of residences, temples and shrines, pavilions and gardens, with picturesque bridges to the lake islands.
The Summer Palace is now one of Beijing's most visited attractions. This was the home of the feared Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), the effective ruler in the dying years of the Qing dynasty, whose intransigence and scheming played a pivotal role in the downfall of the last emperors. One of her most famous legacies is her ornately carved marble boat on the northern edge of the lake. The Wenchang Gallery contains a fine collection of porcelain, as well as jade and examples of Qing furniture.
If you come here in the morning, close to opening time (before the tour groups arrive) you may enjoy the tranquillity of this beautiful and extensive private compound. This is the best preserved of the once-numerous princely mansions in Beijing - the homes of the many sons of the emperors. Yixin, Prince Gong (1833-98) was a powerful figure in the government of China in the 1860s and 1870s; he negotiated a settlement with the Western powers to end the Second Opium War (1860), and was deeply involved in the complexities of palace politics and succession.
Prince Gong’s mansion consists of ornate and reposeful living quarters, courtyards, gateways, and pavilions set in a garden of pools and rockeries. Visitors today are given the chance to do some tea-tasting (in the teahouse), and also to see excerpts from Beijing Opera; full performances are given in summer at the Grand Opera House, also in the grounds. This is an apt connection, as Prince Gong’s mansion is believed to have been an inspiration for the classic Chinese novel 'A Dream of Red Mansions' (or 'A Dream of the Red Chamber') by Cao Xuequin (?1715-c.1763), which has been adapted for the stage and is a mainstay in the repertoire of Beijing Opera.
Outside the Forbidden City, the people of Beijing used to live in single-storey buildings in tightly-packed alleys, called hutong, which ran across the city along an east-west axis (so the front gates could be on the more favourable south side). Specific trades clustered in these alleys, and many of the hutong still reflect that in their name: Zhonggu Hutong (Bell and Drum Alley), Jiucuju Hutong (Wine and Vinegar Alley), and so on. Some of them are incredibly narrow, with the buildings separated by less than a metre (3 ft), but others are as wide as normal streets; some houses are old, while others are relatively modern (post-1949).
The traditional family home was a courtyard-house, or siheyuan. Some courtyard-houses were very grand, and occupied by nobility and high-ranking civil servants; others were modest, and became even more so after the collapse of imperial rule and during the turmoil of the 20th century. Recently, because they are viewed by the authorities as outmoded and unhygienic, and occupy prime land that could be better exploited by modern high-rise blocks, many of the old hutong have been swept away, and along with them a traditional, time-honoured mode of life and social contact. But some hutong and siheyuan have been protected, and those of special historic significance are marked with a white plaque.
You can still get a flavour of old Beijing by wandering the hutong in and around the city centre (almost all hutong are within the bounds of the Second Ring Road; for instance, try looking in the neighbourhood of the Drum Tower, to the north of the Forbidden City). This would be a good opportunity to sample street food - some of the tastiest cooking that Beijing has to offer. Alternatively, you can take a specialist hutong tour. Or you could experience a bit of hutong life for yourself by staying in one of the courtyard-houses that have been converted into guesthouses and hotels, such as Lusongyuan Hotel (in Banchang Hutong), Hao Yuan Guesthouse (in Shijia Hutong), and Bamboo Garden Hotel (in Xiaoshiqiao Hutong).
The dazzling form of traditional theatre called Beijing Opera (or Peking Opera) has origins that stretch back at least as far as the 1790s. Performers clad in elaborate costumes, some extravagantly adorned with facepaint, enact tales based on fairy-stories, myth and the classics of Chinese literature, dealing with subjects such as romance, political intrigue and war. Accompanied by stringed instruments, a reed flute and percussion (drums, bells, cymbals, clappers), the characters sing in a distinctive high-pitched style - a brash delivery that, along with the vivid colours, reflects the fact that the opera is essentially a popular art form that was traditionally performed to noisy crowds in dimly-lit temples, markets and teahouses. Shows also include acrobatics, mime and clowning. You can witness this sumptuous spectacle at a number of key venues, such as the Huguang Guild Hall, Chang'an Grand Theatre and Lao She Tea House, or glimpse a sample at Prince Gong's Mansion (see above).
Beijing now has a huge range of shops to suit the pockets of a vast range of shoppers, from modest workers to the newly-fledged millionaires. The most high-profile glamorous shopping, featuring many of the international brands, is to be found around Wangfujing Dajie (near the Wangfujing Metro stop). There are also plenty of shopping malls and department stores. But for more authentic Beijing shopping, go to the markets. At the Panjiayuan Market (weekends only) you can buy clothes, crafts and antiques, and it’s the same again at Hongqiao Market (or Pearl) market, where you can also buy all kinds of pearls, plus some extreme foodstuffs. For silk fabrics and clothes, go to the Xiushui Silk Market. The kind of things that visitors buy include silk clothes (which can be quickly tailor-made), jade, carpets, lanterns, masks, kites, souvenirs of the Maoist past, and personalised 'chops' (name-stamps carved in Chinese characters). Prices are fixed in the department stores, but in the markets in and around Beijing you'll be expected to bargain.
The Great Wall of China is one of those cultural treasures you just have to witness. It was begun in the days of the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huangdi (reigned 221-210 BC), and massively extended during the Ming dynasty, eventually becoming more than 6350 km (3945 miles) long in total. The Great Wall is a colossal feat of engineering, huge in scale and breadth, beaded with countless watchtowers and gates and built at the cost of thousands of lives. A section of the Great Wall lies some 70 km (45 miles) from Beijing, so this is good base from which to set out to see it. You won't be alone: only a few restricted segments of the wall are accessible to visitors (ostensibly for reasons of conservation), notably at Badaling. This part of the Great Wall is served by the squadrons of tour buses making their daily excursions.
The Great Wall at Badaling has been heavily restored, in fact more or less totally rebuilt, but it is still impressive for the sense of the sheer might of this endeavour, and also for the landscape that surrounds it. The Badaling experience includes a museum and explanatory film show, plus cable-cars, restaurants and teahouses, shops, insistent hawkers, photographers with camels - and (particularly at weekends in summer) crowds and crowds of visitors. If you are on a tour bus, your time on the wall will be limited - so if you want to get away from the crowds before your time is up, you may have to run, literally.
Tour buses also go to the less crowded and very steep segment of the Great Wall at Simatai, 110 km (68 miles) from Beijing. These tours often include other sights in the area, the most significant of which are the Ming Tombs, a collection of huge and ornate buildings and monumental sculpture 45 km (28 miles) from Beijing, where thirteen of the sixteen Ming emperors were laid to rest.
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