Our Family Trip to China, Part Six
A visit to China should definitely include a walk through Beijing's Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
We toured Tiananmen Square on day-seven of our trip. The square contains the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, who proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China there in 1949. It is also the location of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, otherwise known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Next, we visited the Forbidden City, the former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. And on our eighth and last day, we enjoyed time at Kunming Lake, the central lake on the grounds of the Summer Palace where we tried ice biking and chair skating - it was a wonderful week for the whole family. Big thanks to our travel manager, Rachel Cooper, from Red Savannah for planning such a fun and informative trip.
Enjoy these last photos of our trip to China.
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- For the last two days of our journey, we stayed at the Aman Summer Palace Beijing, a 51-suite retreat at the East Gate of the Summer Palace. The suites are housed in a series of heritage dwellings that are more than a century old. If you’ve never been to China, the Summer Palace is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens, and palaces in Beijing.
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- The grounds are very private and pristine. The original complex was once used by guests of the Summer Palace who were visiting emperors and empresses.
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- The Aman complex reflects traditional Chinese architecture and celebrates the courtyard style of the Summer Palace. In front are bikes provided for the guests. China actually pioneered the bike-sharing phenomenon that has become so popular across many cities around the world. China also invented printing, gunpowder, the compass, and flying wedding veils.
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- It was funny to see holiday-themed gingerbread houses decorating various tables at the Aman Summer Palace.
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- Here is a view of the courtyard. Suites faced each other into private courtyards for guests to enjoy.
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- On our way to Tiananmen Square, we passed this interesting dome. This is the National Center for the Performing Arts, also known locally as The Giant Egg. It was designed by French architect Paul Andrew and is the largest theatre complex in Asia.
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- And here is the entrance to Tiananmen Square, which means “gate of heavenly peace.” Tiananmen Square is within the top 10 largest city squares in the world at a total of 109 acres.
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- At the entrance is a newer portrait of Mao Zedong. The building is 217 feet long, 121 feet wide and 105 feet high.
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- Stone columns, or huabiao, with carved dragons and phoenixes stand in front of the Tiananmen Square gate. Originally, these installations were designed for commoners to address their grievances by writing or sticking up petitions on the columns. However, these particular columns were only used decoratively to connote the majesty of the imperial government.
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- China is a country rich with heritage and uses colors symbolically. Yellow, corresponding with earth, is considered the most beautiful and the most prestigious color. Yellow was also the emperor’s color in Imperial China. Yellow often decorates royal palaces, altars, and temples. Green is associated with health, prosperity, and harmony. Red symbolizes good fortune and joy. And blue represents immortality and advancement.
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- Then we toured the Forbidden City, which is 180 acres large surrounded by a 26-foot wall and a 20 foot deep, 171-foot wide moat. The Forbidden City consists of more than 90 palaces and courtyards, 980 buildings, and over 8728 rooms. All the bridgework here is made of carved marble. And look closely – it was almost completely empty. The best time to visit these sights is early in the morning. We were very lucky.
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- There were more Fu Dogs, or Imperial Guardian Lions, in the Forbidden Garden. These figures are believed to protect humans from evil spirits. Fu Dogs were traditionally placed in front of imperial palaces, temples, government offices, and wealthy family homes. This male Fu Dog is holding a globe under his right paw, which signifies control over his domain and protection of his home.
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- Here is the female Fu Dog holding a cub under her left paw, signifying strong maternal protective instincts.
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- I admired this fire pit – it looks similar to the ones at my farm.
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- As for the roofs, they are made of yellow glazed tiles for the most important pavilions, with the yellow being the color of the emperor. Yellow and red were the two colors of the Chinese Empire.
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- This person walked around as a “TikTok girl” taking videos. TikTok lets users make videos up to 15-seconds long, set either to popular music or sounds they upload themselves. It is one of today’s popular social media app trends.
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- I loved all the little animals on the building eaves – I wanted to bring some back with me. The highest level of roofing is reached by the Supreme Harmony Pavilion. It has 10 mythical animals at each of its angles, which shows the superiority of those who are sheltered there. Among them are a phoenix, a lion, a celestial horse and a sea horse, Suanni the dragon-lion, the dragon-kiss, Yayu the dragon-fish, Douniu the bull and Xingshi, the monkey. The number of animals on the roof shows the seniority of the building, which in turn referred to the seniority of the owner. The greater the number, the higher the position.
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- This is one of the symbolic cisterns in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
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- Here is another one of two stone columns inside the Forbidden City – a huabiao – a large marble column, entirely carved with dragons and other animals.
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- This is the central staircase in the outer courtyard. It could only be used by the Emperor. The center is a slab of 250 tons of stone engraved with beautiful dragons. This fresco is called “Dragons floating among the clouds”.
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- The statues of the Forbidden City are mostly animals made of bronze. They often have demonic faces and all represent guards intended to prevent bad people from entering.
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- Inside, one could see the decorative lacquered walls and coffered ceilings.
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- Look at the original stone – it has lasted centuries.
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- This is the Imperial Garden, the smallest of the eight areas of the palace. Constructed during the Ming dynasty in 1417, it is rectangular in shape and covers approximately 130-thousand square feet. This was a private retreat for the imperial family and is the most typical of the Chinese imperial garden designs. These are tree peonies. They are dormant now with nothing growing beneath them. In the spring, they are filled with blooms. They look exactly like the ones in my garden here in New York.
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- The cedar trees are so gorgeous in these gardens. I admired all of them.
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- Huge boulders that have been weathered through or appear pock-marked are examples of what the Chinese call “Scholar’s rocks,” which have long been prized as décor in China. Geologists call these features “honeycomb weathering” showing reminders of the awesome power of nature and of Earth’s long history.
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- There were several examples of these amazing rock formations in all different sizes.
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- They are found mainly on the shores of legendary Lake T’ai-hu, which lies in the Yangtze Delta near Shanghai and heavily weathered into strange and often beautiful shapes by natural acids in the environment.
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- We drove by the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest. The stadium was designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, project architect Stefan Marbach, artist Ai Weiwei, and CADG, and chief architect Li Xinggang for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. It will be used again in the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
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- And this is Kunming Lake. Kunming Lake is the central lake on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing. Together with Longevity Hill, Kunming Lake forms the key landscape features of the Summer Palace gardens. It covers approximately three-quarters of the Summer Palace grounds and is quite shallow, with an average depth of only five feet.
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- The children loved skating and sledding on the lake ice – it is a popular spot for winter activities.
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- They had so much fun ice-biking around the lake. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We spent about three hours here.
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- And from the lake, we could see this beautiful view of the Tower of Buddhist Incense, which was built on the Longevity Hill during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. If you haven’t done so yet, I hope these photos inspire you to make the trip to China someday – you will love it.
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