A quick trip to China leaves us longing for more

[PrincessInOz]

Awesome pictures of the Forbidden City. You are so lucky to see it with very few tourists there.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Palace overload

Yes it’s another hall, now in the Inner Court and the private part of the Palace during the Ming Dynasty. This is the Palace of Heavenly Purity where the Emperor retired for the night and was laid out in state after his death and the casket containing the name of his chosen successor was concealed.



A reflected view inside one of the Inner Palace Halls



The Hall of Celestial & Terrestrial Union with its lovely gold ceiling. Empresses would receive birthday greetings here.



Getting lost in the side palaces and corridors



In the Courtyard of the Palace of Gathering Elegance which still keeps its appearance as it was on Dowager Empress Cixi's 50th birthday.

Cixi is infamous and history is still divided as to whether she was a despot responsible for the fall of the Qing Dynasty or a reformer who became a scapegoat. She was a concubine of Emperor Xianfeng when she was a teenager and gave birth to her son in 1856. When XianFeng died in 1861 he became the Tongzhi Emperor and she became the Empress Dowager together with the existing Empress Dowager Ci’an. She persuaded Ci’an to join her in ousting (and executing several) of the eight regents appointed by Xianfeng and assumed co-regency with Ci’an (who though not his birth mother nominally was considered the mother of all the Emperor’s children and controlled his harem). After Tonghzi died in 1875, Cixi consolidated control installing her nephew as the Guanxu Emperor and breaking the traditional rules of succession of the Qing Dynasty that had ruled China since 1644. While both continued as co-regents, Cixi appears to have been the dominant personality and while she tackled administration at a time of internal chaos and foreign challenges, she was ruthless in maintaining absolute power. During the Hundred Days’ Reforms in 1898 Cixi placed the Emperor under house arrest for supporting radical reformers and had several supporters executed. She effectively controlled the Chinese Government for 47 years from 1861 to her death in 1908.



Close up of the bronze animals






We loved the paintings of everyday life that decorated the courtyard (many very faded)



View inside a bedroom



Empress Dowager Cixi’s bedroom.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

The Imperial Garden

In the Imperial Garden, a classical Chinese Garden built in 1417 by the Ming Dynasty and used exclusively by the royal family





DD and a gilded unicorn by the entrance to the Hall of Imperial Peace



Gnarly trees and rock “sculptures” on plinths.



A consort pine – one of a pair symbolising the harmony of the Emperor and Empress.



Mosaic pathways



More details as we wandered around



DD and a bull somewhere…



A Queenslander feels the cold!



The north gate now the only exit from the palace

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Views of the surrounding moat

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[Twilight Sparkle]

I love your trip report. The photos are gorgeous, and the info you're providing is so interesting. I've been to China several times but always for work and only in the south and central parts of the country. Never Beijing or Shanghai. This makes me want to be a tourist there! If I ever return for fun, I will be sure to stay at that lovely hutong hotel. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

 

[darrenf67]

The Forbidden City was amazing - the ornate ceilings really took my eye!

 

[zanzibar138]

You're really making me want to go back to China and see more. I think I've decided I need to go to Beijing, Xian, Guilin (and the Li River), Chengdu, Shangri-la, Zhangjiajie Stone Forest, cruise the Yangtze and maybe see if there is a cruise down the Grand Canal. Is that a 7 week trip??? LOL

Count me in PIO! Those places are all on my wishlist too.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

OOOhhhhh I can't wait to read about what you did in Beijing. I just started my pre-trip report. We leave in less than a month. We are staying near where you did, just mapped it, 950 meters directly to the west.

I hope you have the lovely weather we had and enjoy it as much. I will duck over and read your pre-trippie shortly. Just watch out for crossing the roads, the traffic is really lethal. We got used to crossing with locals rather than going it alone especially as you are concentrating on the main road and miss bikes zipping up the inner bike-lanes or buses that seem to suddenly loom. Traffic light signals mean nothing - just because they say it's your turn to cross don't trust the traffic to stop! We needed much longer there!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Love the hotel! Great mix of new with Chinese features. I read with interest. Other than our recent visit, I last went to China when I was 10 with my parents. And it was VERY different back. Unfortunately as a 10 year old I don't think I appreciated what I was seeing and experiencing. And sadly I was somewhat scarred by my experiences. Which explains the "not wanting" to visit China until recently.

I imagine it was very different. I had a friend who visited with a group back in the mid '80's before the 1989 Ti'ananmen Square incident. (I am quite jealous as he has also visited Checkpoint Charlie while the wall was still active and Russia during the communist era etc so has seen a lot of 'history'). It all looked very different back then and of course you could only visit with a guide. I would be interested to hear the incidents that you remember one day.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

You're really making me want to go back to China and see more. I think I've decided I need to go to Beijing, Xian, Guilin (and the Li River), Chengdu, Shangri-la, Zhangjiajie Stone Forest, cruise the Yangtze and maybe see if there is a cruise down the Grand Canal. Is that a 7 week trip??? LOL

Ooh that's my perfect trip too. I'll come --mmm how many weeks do we have?

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I love your trip report. The photos are gorgeous, and the info you're providing is so interesting. I've been to China several times but always for work and only in the south and central parts of the country. Never Beijing or Shanghai. This makes me want to be a tourist there! If I ever return for fun, I will be sure to stay at that lovely hutong hotel. Thank you for sharing your trip with us.

I am glad you are enjoying it. I love reading them so seems only fair to write them too! I would love to see the south of China as well. I hope you at least manage to add a couple of days sightseeing around your work commitments! I am hoping we keep getting good airfare deals as it means it's more likely I will get back there in the next few years with my DH this time. NB Love your name!! and castle avatar.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

The Forbidden City was amazing - the ornate ceilings really took my eye!

Yes the ceilings were magnificent. We never made it to the hall that had the clocks in it (missed it and decided as we needed a rest we'd give it a miss). Did you find it and visit it? Have you ever visited Spain as you would also love e.g. the ornate palace ceilings of the Alhambra.

 

[shushh]

You're really making me want to go back to China and see more. I think I've decided I need to go to Beijing, Xian, Guilin (and the Li River), Chengdu, Shangri-la, Zhangjiajie Stone Forest, cruise the Yangtze and maybe see if there is a cruise down the Grand Canal. Is that a 7 week trip??? LOL

Take me! Take me! I can speak Mandarin...sort of...

 

[shushh]

The more I see of your hotel, the more I like it!
And what an amazingly clear blue sky you had! Incredible photos of the Forbidden city! All those details were lost on me when I was 10...
I might have missed this but how cold was it on the day? Was it significantly colder in Beijing compared to Shanghai?

 

[shushh]

I imagine it was very different. I had a friend who visited with a group back in the mid '80's before the 1989 Ti'ananmen Square incident. (I am quite jealous as he has also visited Checkpoint Charlie while the wall was still active and Russia during the communist era etc so has seen a lot of 'history'). It all looked very different back then and of course you could only visit with a guide. I would be interested to hear the incidents that you remember one day.

Always happy to share!
My aunt lived in Shanghai and she was with us most of the time. We visited Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai as well visiting my father's village in Xiamen in the Fujian province. We may have visited more places but I can't remember. I do remember people looking/staring at us which can be uncomfortable at times. Things that were awful were:
1) the toilets. It was one long drain with partitions and no doors. I saw poop floating down...and all the toilets stank.
2) The food was also not crash hot. I remember everything being oily and tasteless.
3) The hotel we were at in Beijing was musty. My experience was coloured by me being very unwell with a high fever in Beijing.
4) We caught a train (I don't remember where we caught it from and where we went...) and it was one of the worst experiences ever. It was hot and dirty. The air coming in was sooty and at the end of the train ride, I remember rubbing sweat off my face and neck and seeing black grime coming off. We had to put our suitcases under the seat and I'm not sure I ever wanted to touch those suitcases again but I remember my parents saying that we had no choice.
5) The spitting. It was everywhere and I could hear someone bringing up phlegm nearly every few seconds and just wanted to gag.

The good things!
1) My father's family home was still there and his remaining family were SO happy to see us. They gave us gifts and the home made food was so much better.
2) Seeing my aunt! She clearly loved spending time with us. I remember her very fondly.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Count me in PIO! Those places are all on my wishlist too.

Ooh that's my perfect trip too. I'll come --mmm how many weeks do we have?

Take me! Take me! I can speak Mandarin...sort of...

So.....when do we want to go?????

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Jingshang Park

Immediately opposite the “back door” of the Forbidden Palace is Jingshang Park. This hill was created from the earth dug to form the moat and canals and was also part of good Feng Shui - a mountain behind the palace and water in front. (It also happened to help block the dust laden winds from the north). It was the Imperial garden for the Forbidden City until it opened to the public in 1928. Quite impressive to think it was all built by hand.



Climbing up the stairs that lead to the top pavilion – good practice for the Great Wall but this is only 46m high!



The Wanchun Pavilion on the apex of the hill



Views over the Forbidden City which is at the centre of Beijing on a direct north-south axis to align with the polar star, thought to be the heart of the Universe and good Feng Shui. Later theories believe that the other axis is aligned to the country's secondary capital at the time, Xanadu.



Panorama view showing the moat



Looking north



Close up of the moat and corner guard towers. Plans to view these at sunset one day never eventuated. You can see the Wangfujing clock tower in the middle background.



Looking south east over Nanhai Lake



Looking west over Beihai Lake and its white Dagoba, built in honour of the Dalai Lama in 1651. Also on a hill created from earth dug to form the lake.



Close up of the Dagoba. Near its base is the Round City where Kublai Khan (founder of the Yuan Dynasty in 1271) lived while he ruled. Another place to visit next time!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Exiting the park and Dongcheng

Details of the painted roof beams in the Wanchun Pavilion





One of the smaller pavilions here



Walking out we passed tablets commemorating something. Nearby was where the last Ming Emperor ChongZeng hung himself from a tree after the city fell to rebels.



More delightful curly branched trees



A male lion with his paw on an embroidered ball representing supremacy over the world



We headed out of the park by the east gate. This is nowhere near a metro so we decided to walk back to the hotel (Google tells me it was 2.7 km). We walked through some more local streets and hutongs and along some busy thoroughfares.



Local produce for sale



We came across flower boxes like these everywhere with plastic flowers but also flower boxes with new bulbs just about to shoot and trimmed plants in them ready for spring so wonder if the plastic flowers are for colour during winter. This bike has one of the colourful “hand and leg protectors”.



A wall commemorating the May Fourth movement – an anti-imperialist, cultural and political movement led by students in Beijing on 4 May 1919 protesting against the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles that gave territories to Japan (after China had entered the War on the side of the Allies on the condition that all German spheres of influence including these territories would be returned to China). They sparked national protests and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism.



After a pit stop at our hotel and half an hours interneting, we headed back out as we had to collect our train tix for Friday from a railway station (any one). If it hadn’t been for this we would have exited from the west gate of Jingshan Park and wended our way through Beihai Park up to Houhai lakes.

As it was we caught the metro a few stops to Beijing central railway station. The travel group had sent us copious instructions which made it very easy, especially having viewed their videos. I apologise as I should have thought to take pics for the enlightenment of others. I knew the ticket offices were far to the right of the main train station so we headed that way and I easily recognised the building from the pics.

This is a pic of the main building (you keep heading to the right for the ticket offices).



We just joined the shortest queue not needing to look for one that spoke English and handed over our Chinese slip of paper and our passports. Five minutes later she handed them back with our tickets. All sorted! The hardest bit was the fact there were no automatic machines in the subway here. We had seen a big sign saying “tickets” in a separate building adjacent to the subway entrance but had ignored it. So back we went and that was the hardest as the seller didn’t understand our pronunciation. I pulled out my map which had Chinese as well on it and pointed to the station we wanted and hoped she gave us the right tickets!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Always happy to share!
My aunt lived in Shanghai and she was with us most of the time. We visited Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai as well visiting my father's village in Xiamen in the Fujian province. We may have to more places but I can't remember. I do remember people looking/staring at us which can be uncomfortable at times. Things that were awful were:
1) the toilets. It was one long drain with partitions and no doors. I saw poop floating down...and all the toilets stank.
2) The food was also not crash hot. I remember being oily and tasteless.
3) The hotel we were at in Beijing was musty. My experience was coloured by me being very unwell with a high fever in Beijing.
4) We caught a train (I don't remember where we caught it from and where we went...) and it was one of the worst experiences ever. It was hot and dirty. The air coming in was sooty and at the end of the train ride, I remember rubbing sweat off my face and neck and seeing black grime coming off. We had to put our suitcases under the seat and I'm not sure I every wanted to touch those suitcases again but I remember my parents saying that we had no choice.
5) The spitting. It was everywhere and I could hear someone bringing up phlegm nearly every few seconds and just wanted to gag.

The good things!
1) My father's family home was still there and his remaining family were SO happy to see us. They gave us gifts and the home made food was so much better.
2) Seeing my aunt! She clearly loved spending time with us. I remember her very fondly.

Well no wonder you were scarred - at ten and coming from a much more western life. I am sure in some rural villages things are still like that and I bet the long distance slow trains aren't much better either. Luckily we can now visit in more of a "bubble"! I think decent sewerage is a major thing! Becoming ill would not have helped at all. We caught the Indian Pacific from WA back to SA and my DD was quite sick (giardia we discovered after we got home) and she remembers it as a train trip from hell. We only have marginally better memories I am sure coloured by our concern at her illness! I am glad you took away some positive memories of your 10 yo visit and your recent visit helped rub out some of the worst!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

The more I see of your hotel, the more I like it!
And what an amazingly clear blue sky you had! Incredible photos of the Forbidden city! All those details were lost on me when I was 10...
I might have missed this but how cold was it on the day? Was it significantly colder in Beijing compared to Shanghai?

We were so lucky with the weather in Beijing. It was cold that day - I think around 5-6C until mid afternoon (which is cold for Queenslanders!) Not too bad in the sun but in the shade or when the wind blew - brrr. You can tell as we were wearing a thermal, polar fleece jacket, coat, scarves and beanies. Yes we found Beijing colder though the rain probably lifted the temps in Shanghai. Mind you we also froze in the wet and cold in Shanghai too especially waiting to watch the castle and fireworks after dark. We did notice how the temp dropped significantly several degrees as soon as the sun went down. I will post soon a piccy of DD by Houhai Lakes zipped up like an eskimo after her nose went totally numb. I shouldn't say as she is still waiting to get the official paperwork through and sign the contract but all being well she is off to Sweden for her first job (2 year postdoc) - so she needs to get used to that level of cold! (She loves the cold much more than the heat though and was hoping for a job somewhere cold in Europe!)

 

[zanzibar138]

I shouldn't say as she is still waiting to get the official paperwork through and sign the contract but all being well she is off to Sweden for her first job (2 year postdoc) - so she needs to get used to that level of cold! (She loves the cold much more than the heat though and was hoping for a job somewhere cold in Europe!)

OMG how exciting for J! Hope it all goes through smoothly for her.