A courtyard is like a square. Rooms are built along the four sides of the square. Beijing's courtyards have three sizes - the bigger ones, the middle-sized ones and the smaller ones. The smaller ones are very simple. Usually, there are several rooms arranged on each of the four sides respectively. They are the north rooms, east and west wing-rooms and south rooms. The older family members live in the north rooms; the young live in the wing-rooms, and a south room is constructed as a living room or study.

 

The middle-sized ones are a little more complicated than the smaller ones but still obtain all the basic structures. Rooms, corridors, walls are added to this kind of courtyard. Among these, a Chuihua Gate is very important. It divides the whole courtyard into front yard (outer yard) and inner yard. The wing-rooms in the outer yard are smaller than those in the inner yard. They are used as a kitchen or bedrooms for the servants. The south rooms are a gate room, living room or a study and garage.

 

The bigger courtyard is the most complicated form of courtyard. It consists of more than two small courtyards.

 

The middle-sized and smaller courtyards are dwellings for the common people while the bigger courtyards were used only by government officials and family members of the government officials.

 

Lying at the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City, called Gu Gong, in Chinese, was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Now known as the Palace Museum, it is to the north of Tiananmen Square. Rectangular in shape, it is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. Surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 buildings. The wall has a gate on each side. Opposite the Tiananmen Gate, to the north is the Gate of Devine Might (Shenwumen), which faces JingshanPark. The distance between these two gates is 960 meters, while the distance between the gates in the east and west walls is 750 meters. There are unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall. These afford views over both the palace and the city outside. The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The southern section, or the Outer Court was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation. The northern section, or the Inner Court was where he lived with his royal family. Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven from the Inner Court, fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned here. Having been the imperial palace for some five centuries, it houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987, the PalaceMuseum is now one of the most popular tourist attractions world wide.

 

Nowadays, the Forbidden City, or the Palace Museum is open to tourists from home and abroad. Splendid painted decoration on these royal architectural wonders, the grand and deluxe halls, with their surprisingly magnificent treasures will certainly satisfy "modern civilians".

 

Admission Fee: 100 in summer;40 in winter

Opening Hours: 8:30 to 16:20 in summer;8:30 to 15:20 in winter

Recommended Time for a Visit: Three hours

Bus Route: 1,5,819

 

Situated in the western outskirts of Haidian District, the SummerPalace is 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from central Beijing. Having the largest royal park and being well preserved, it was designated, in 1960 by the State Council, as a Key Cultural Relics Protection Site of China. Containing examples of the ancient arts, it also has graceful landscapes and magnificent constructions. The SummerPalace is the archetypal Chinese garden, and is ranked amongst the most noted and classical gardens of the world. In 1998, it was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

 

Constructed in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), during the succeeding reign of feudal emperors; it was extended continuously. By the time of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it had become a luxurious royal garden providing royal families with rest and entertainment. Originally called "Qingyi Garden" (Garden of Clear Ripples), it was know as one of the famous "three hills and five gardens" (Longevity Hill, Jade Spring Mountain, and Fragrant Hill; Garden of Clear Ripples, Garden of Everlasting Spring, Garden of Perfection and Brightness, Garden of Tranquility and Brightness, and Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure). Like most of the gardens of Beijing, it could not elude the rampages of the Anglo-French allied force and was destroyed by fire. In 1888, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit, changing its name to SummerPalace (Yiheyuan). She spent most of her later years there, dealing with state affairs and entertaining. In 1900, it suffered again, being ransacked by the Eight-Power Allied Force. After the success of the 1911 Revolution, it was opened to the public.

 

Centered on the Tower of Buddhist Incense (Foxiangge) the SummerPalace consists of over 3,000 structures including pavilions, towers, bridges, and corridors. The SummerPalace can be divided into four parts: the court area, front-hill area, front-lake area, and rear-hill and back-lake area.

 

 

The Temple of Heaven is a worthwhile visiting place in Beijing. It is much bigger than the Forbidden City and smaller than the SummerPalace with an area of about 2,700,000 square meters. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifice to Heaven. As Chinese emperors called themselves "The Son of Heaven" ,they dared not to build their own dwelling,"Forbidden City" bigger than a dwelling for Heaven.

 

The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircular symbolizing the heavens and the southern part is square symbolizing the earth. The northern part is higher than the southern part. This design shows that the heaven is high and the earth is low and the design reflected an ancient Chinese thought of "The heaven is round and the earth is square".

 

The Temple is divided by two enclosed walls into inner part and outer part. The main buildings of the Temple lie at the south and north ends of the middle axis line of the inner part. The most magnificent buildings are The Circular Mound Altar (Yuanqiutan), Imperial Vault of Heaven (Huangqiongyu) and Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest (Qiniandian) from south to north. Also, there are some additional buildings like Three Echo Stones and Echo Wall.Almost all of the buildings are connected by a wide bridge called VermilionStepsBridge (Danbiqiao) or called Sacred Way.

 

 

 

Located at the center of Beijing City is Tiananmen Square, where you can visit Tiananmen Tower, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, Mao Zedong Memorial Hall and see the national flag raising ceremony. Thousands of people come to the Square every day. It is the must place to visit in Beijing City.