Forbidden City revisited

We woke up to a cool Beijing on a sunny Friday morning . This was 8am at a road junction .

Streets being swept in the early morning by the worker in this machine .

We were to visit the Forbidden City this sunny morning .

I remembered the first time I visited the Forbidden City eight years ago. We were marvelled at the size of the palace museum and was excited to look at it ourselves.
This time around , having known the gigantic size of this magnificient heritage , I was trying to look for things I missed the last time. We entered from the north gate this time, which is actually the rear gate.

So we first entered the imperial garden backyard .

A more than 300 year-old tree in the Imperial garden .

 

It was explained that the Forbidden City was twice burned down to ashes in the history . So, what are the measures taken to protect the building now ?

Look at the wiring on the roof 

Preventive measures like this had been installed on the palace roofs .
From the Rear Palace where the women folks stayed , we walked through the Centre palace which was the administration palaces.

Parts of the Palace were repainted before the 2008 Olympics , especially the Front Palace . Look at the huge number of tourists in the venue , and this was said to be the low season of tourism .

It was estimated that there are at least 50,000 tourists here each day 

The red wall had been repainted...behind this wall , the women's palaces

Familiar movie scene ? But none of the movie scenes were taken here .

Emperor Qian Long's writings

Forbidden City revisited ...... still refreshing !

Beijing City

Datong was a coal city , The local tour leader , Jason ( he said this is just a name for tourists' convenience but means nothing to him ) explained that Datong locals now found that they need to drill nearly 50 metres deeper into the earth to get water , and rainfall was minimum . However, corn was the main crop here and we saw thousands of acres of corn field along the journey.

Journey back to Beijing from Datong on a Thursday afternoon took about 5 hours , with one stop at public toilets . It was the same highway across acres of dry lands .

And after 5 hours , we were back to the city of Beijing , a city with a population  as much as a small nation . The city is very big with a transport network like a spiderweb .

I was eager to look at the transformation of Beijing . Staying at a hotel in the city itself gave us this chance. This was our first night in Beijing .

 

 

look at the busy street at about 8pm

Looking down at the busy street from a 4-lanes pedestrian bridge

Escalators to the pedestrian overhead bridge  in the busy shopping areas

This is the modern Beijing !

Ancient architecture

This is the Hanging Temple or xuan kong si from near . Look at the supports .

Look at the supporting tilts

It was explained that the vertical wooden tilts were not really supporting the building. It was the horizontal foundation that went metres deep into the cliff that were supporting the building . The building was solely wooden . The wood used was said to have been soaked in certain type of oil for years before being used in the construction of the building .

As we climbed up the building, we noticed that there were many tourists at the same time and we started to worry about the safety measures taken by the authority. We worried that the building cannot support the number of tourist up there . Look at the narrow passage in this picture below .

Walkways that allowed only one person to pass each time

When we asked the guard on duty what were the measures the authority took to control the number of tourist on the temple, he said there was no need to do so . He said the architectural design of the temple itself was a control , He explained that the passage ways of the temple were designed in such a way that it was impossible to have a crowd at a same spot. So he says it was very safe .

It was also said that the river bed had been  raised  over the years by natural erosion of the mountains, making the monastery only hanging 50 metres above ground . Those days it was said that the temple was 100 metres above ground. This place was on highland about 1000m above sea level , windy and cold .

This is indeed another breathtaking heritage site China offers ........

Hanging Monastery, Datong

The evening after the Yungang  Grottoes , we actually stopped over another place in the city. We even passed by a mosque in the city .

The small crescent on top defines the place .

Right in the middle of the city , there was this wall built in 1771 - the Nine Dragon Wall .

Nine Dragon wall , 1771 

Too bad it was quite dark at that time . The glazed tile screen built during the administration of Emperor Qianlong , Qing Dynasty, looked dull at evening .

The second day at Datong, we started early to travel another 65 km away south-east of Datong to visit the Hanging Temple . This temple hangs on the cliff of a hill with over 50 meters above the ground , first built in 491. It was then rebuilt and maintained in the Ming & Qing Dynasty , some 600 - 900 years ago .

On the way there, the government are building highways through mountain range .

high rise highway ? fantastic

Along the way, there was this unique village . Look at the village houses made of red clay .

Look at the round windows .

After the winding road, we arrived at this place .

That's the name of the monastery

And the cliff hanging monastery from a distance !

Across this hanging bridge to climb up the cliff .

This is the hanging monastery at a nearer distance

And when you are up in the temple, magnisficient is the word.

Datong , Shanxi district

This was the first time I  visit Datong in the Shanxi district . From the tour leader's explanation, we realised that it is a very dry county.

Upon arrival, after a late lunch, we headed to Yungang Grottoes - a collection of shallow caves located 16km west of Datong . It was reported that there are over 50,000 carved images and statues of Buddhas and Buddhisatvas within these grottoes. The imazing fact is, most of these carvings are around 1000 years old.

This place had been opened as a tourist attraction . Thus , expectedly had a nice entrance .....

a wooden carving at the entrance

The long corridor leading to the hill side

A midway tower with bells or chimes

Gate to the caves/ grottoes

This temple housed the first two caves

The first two caves were supposedly the most beautiful with colourful carvings . However , to protect the drawings, no photographs are allowed in these two caves .

other caves

The Buddha statue in one of the caves

Some of these caves may have been robbed, look at the holes left 

We are so small in front of this Buddha statue

Looking at these ruins, we just couldn't help marveled at the ancient men's superior craftmenship. These are just amazingly huge projects of the past .

Worthy visit - Yungang Grottoes .

A China Holiday

With my daughter's many reminders : keep yourself warm, bring thermo flask to keep warm water , text me after you checked in, enjoy yourself ....etc etc. and my son's simple words : enjoy yourself , take lots of photos to show us ,I went on a vacation with a warm heart. Those lovely texts are from my children who are thousands of miles away .

So, I went and came back with lots of photos to share with  them .

It has been 8 years since the first time I visited Beijing. Deep down many of us wanted to look at the changes China had undergone at this posr-Olympics period. We were met at the airport by a young English speaking tour leader . The weather that greeted us upon arrival was said to be 0 degree Celcius, but it was sunny and not chilling .

We were brought to breakfast in one part of the Beijing city . This was our first glimpse of Beijing.

8 am early morning street view

Window display - Beijing fashion or western fashion ?

Microsoft is here !

 

 

 

Well, this is really a different sight from what I saw the last time I was there .
We moved on to Datong after breakfast .
Datong is considered outskirt of Beijing, a 4 hour bus journey, in the Shanxi district . It is a coal mining city.
About an hour after moving out of Beijing, we saw these giant windmills .

Then we passed by many deserted plateau with stony-looking mountains in the background . It was a totally different view . These areas were dry.

The background mountain looks like an artist's work.

And there were coal- transporting trains along the way. These were real long trains with about 208 coaches including 4 locomotives.

Notice the train in the middle of this picture ?

As we came near to Datong city, we saw this energy plant .

Size is never an issue in China .

And we arrived at Datong, a dusty city with a number of historical heritages in the surrounding , two of which we were scheduled to visit .