Beijing: the Forbidden City in Winter

Situated in the center of Beijing City and now called Gugong in Chinese, which means the ancient imperial palace. It has been the imperial palace for twenty-four emperors during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) Dynasties. It took 14 years during the reign of Emperor Chengzu to finish it in Ming Dyansty. Now, it is the largest-scale, best preserved and the grandest ancient palace and building complex in the world.

The Imperial Palace is divided into two ceremonial areas: the Outer Palace and the Inner Court, with Taihe Palace as the tallest and the most majestic one. Grand ceremonies like throne ascending ceremony, wedding ceremony, title conferring ceremony, the launching ceremony etc were all held in Taihe Palace. Yangxin Palace is the most famous one in inner court.

Ancient Chinese Astronomers believed that the Purple Star (Polaris) was in the center of heaven and the Heavenly Emperor lived in the Purple Palace. The Palace for the emperor on earth was so called the Purple City. It was forbidden to enter without special permission of the empeor. Hence its name 'The Purple Forbidden City', usually 'The Forbidden City'.

Shanghai: Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

Just like Paris has La cité des sciences et d’ industrie, Washington D.C. has National Air and Space Museum, Yok has Yokohama Science Center, almost every famous international metropolis has a topnotch science and technology museum for its citizens and tourists to appreciate the trace of human being's scientific history and explore the secret of the past and the future. Themed with “Nature, People, Science”, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum will provide every visitor with modern scientific and technological knowledge and spirit in the pleasant activities. It is definitely a place worthy visiting for children.

Covering a total area of 68,000 square kilometers, Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is an important base for science education and leisure tourism. Now it is composed by temporary exhibition halls and five main exhibition halls, including the Earth's Crust Exploration Hall, the Hall of Widest Spectrum of Life, the Light of Wisdom Hall etc.

If you are planing a Shanghai Xian tour, it is strongly recommended for you to take child here. And let them feel the power of nature and science and technology. In one’s Xian tour, there is also a place for you to explore the mystery of nature — Xian Museum of Nature.

The Great Xingshan Temple in Xian

Xian is a quiet popular tourism city among Taiwanese. I will have a Xian tour almost every year. Unfortunately, the majority of Taiwanese do not kown Xian and think it is a remote and undeveloped place.

The general tourists in Xian, it is a must for them to conduct a Terracotta Warriors and Horses tour, and visit the well known Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Huaqing Pool etc. Beyond all question, those are the world famous attractions. However, exactly because of those spotlight, other valueable attractions scattered in Xian are ignored by people, such as Caotang Temple, Xingjiao Temple, Xiangji Temple, Qinglong Temple(Green Dragon Temple) and the Zhaoling Mausoleum...

Actually, those temples will become famous if they locate in any other cities, instead of Xian, which is made up by numerous attractions.. The Great Xingshan Temple is one of them. It is located in the north of the city in Xiaozhai area. It is said the temple was build in the year between Taishi and Taikang at the reign of Emperor Wudi in West Jin Dynasty(265-289).

Beijing: the Great Wall of Autumn

For a long time, I has been longing to have a witness of the autumn scenery of the Great Wall. Finally, we set it in an idle weekend and call up several friends, then head for the direction of Huairou, a district of Beijing.

We had planed to climb Mutianyu Great Wall only, but the strong desire for Jiankou Great Wall had interrupted my plan. Therefore, we decided to climb “the Wild Wall (refers to the section of the Great Wall which is unrepaired and undeveloped)” first, and then set off to Mutianyu Great Wall. We took nearly three hours to get the famous Zhengbei Tower. Of course, the scenery did not let us down, although the weather on that day was not so good. The dilapidated and antiquated bricks and stones run along the high mountains, with being shaded by the late autumn’s dead woods, which makes everything look so natural and magnificent. Later, we walked along the broken ancient walls straightforward to the east, enjoying the gorgeous picture scroll of autumn scenery of Mutianyu Great Wall, till the moon began to rise in the sky.

Overlooking from the Zhengbei Tower, we had a panoramic view of the spectacular scene. But due to the bad weather, the photos are not very good. If you want a better photographing, you’d better go there on a sunny day in your Beijing Xian tour.

After the trip in Beijing, perhaps you would be interested in another centuries-old wall in the Xian tour—the Xian City Wall.

Beijing: Gubeikou Great Wall

It was getting warmer and the color of the world also became brighter. There are a lot of places worthy visiting in suburbs of Beijing in summer if you join a Beijing to Xian tour. Today, I will introduce you one quiet and beautiful destination — Gubeikou Great Wall.

Gubeikou Great Wall is the most magnificent and beautiful section which is consisted by Great Wall of Northern Qi Dynasty(550-557) and the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty(1368-1644), including four sections of Wohu Mount, Panlong Mount, Jinshanling division and Simatai. Gubeikou has been the important fortress between Shanhaiguan Great Wall and Juyongguan Great Wall. It had always been a place of great military importance as a natural throat of Liaodong Plain and Central China region. In particular, during Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, battles for Gubeikou had never stopped, which shows the great importance of the Great Wall.

Except the Great Wall, the ancient towns are also worthy visiting. Escape from the noisy and stuffiness of downtown Beijing and have a taste of the melons and fruits in a peasant household, you will be brightened by the gentle breeze and warm sun. The streets are clean and almost deserted, which make it a town of European style. Such quiet street are seldom seen in my Xian one day tour, because every lanes and street in Xian are always crowded with people.

Beijing: Spring Outing in Ditan Park

In the bloomy spring season, it is time for walk out to nature and enjoy the colors of spring. Considering of the crowded people in Beihai Park and the Summer Palace, I chose Ditan Park.

Today’s Ditan park has been the synonymous of Beijing’s book market. Compared to the noisy and bustling book-market Ditan, I prefer a quieter environment. Lying in the center of Beijing, the ticket for entrance is only two yuan. It was spring, and the flowers began to blossom and the trees turned green. If you had enough time in your Beijing to Xian tour, why not go to Ditan park for a walk?

The most noisy place is the small square. We could hear the “bang bang” sound from a far distance. When walk closer, we saw dozens of African drum lovers gather there and present a performance. Some of them wore sloppy African-style costume, pounding drums and singing loudly. While in your Xian day tour, you will see groups of Qin Opera band perform by old men and women at the foot of the city wall.

Ditan(also named “Fangze Tan” or the Temple of the Earth). Being the second largest altar among Beijing’s five altars, it was originally built in the ninth year of Jia Jing reign in Ming Dynasty(1530 AD). It was served as a place where emperors of both the Ming and subsequent Qing dynasties could perform sacrifices to the gods for good harvests, auspicious weather and a stable nation.

Beijing: the Most Beautiful European-style Food Street Colorful flowers always play an important role in Europe’s old streets. The flower are designed carefully and exquisitely by the owners, with some hung on walls, some on balconies, some stay quietly in corners and some just stand in the center of streets…
Some old streets also have mottled and broken walls, like Morocco, Tunisia. The local people has very good eyes for beauty. They paint the walls with colorful pigment to turn the dilapidated look more bright and exuberant. In historical and cultural European towns and villages, people are good at to adorn life with plants. Flowers decked life and also make life full of romance. That why many flowers’ connation is love, happiness and sweet.

Except flowers, beautiful ironworks, triangular wooden palisades and streetlights with glass cover are all duplicates of European style. In Beijing, I find a similar street, in where except that the restaurants were not named with “ABC”letters, other things have no difference with European streets. The place is called “SOLANA”, which means blue harbor. Located at the northwest bank of Chaoyang Park, the largest city park in Asia,it is a European style business center full of bright sunlight, quiet lakes, elegant buildings and romantic pathways.

 More than 30 restaurants spread in the outher street in the northmost area. Last time when I joined a Beijing to Xian tour, a pair of Arabian mother and daughter invited me to the famous A Thousand and On Night Restaurant, a typical Arabian restaurant. And I like it very much. But if you plan a Xian tour, such food street is hardly found.

Jiangxi: Lushan National Park

 Located in the northern part of Jiangxi Province, to the south of the Yangtze River and northwest of Poyang Lake, Lushan Mountain is a typical horst-style fault block mountain. Situated in north of Jiujiang County and west of Xingzi County, it is a world famous mountain, enjoying a same reputation with Huashan Mountain, where I has been in my Xian day tour. According to historical records, Lushan Mountain has a history of more than 2,000 years. With a total area of 302 square kilometers, it houses 16 natural wonders, 474 scenic spots and 171 peaks, among which the highest peak, Dahanyang Peak, is 1,474 meters above sea level.

Legend says that in Zhou Dynasty, there are seven brothers (1100—256BC) of the Kuang Family who came to cultivate their way, so Mount Lushan is also called the Kuang Mountain, or Kuanglu Mountain. Incorporating magnificences, strangeness, danger, handsomeness, Lushan Mountain has been enjoying a reputation of “the super magnificences of Kuanglu ranks the first all over the world”. Lushan Mountain, together with Jigong Mountain in Henan Province, Moganshan in Zhejiang Province and Beidaihe scenic spot in Hebei Province, which is a famous spot in tours Beijing Xian, are called “the Four Major Summer Resort” in China.

Yunnan: Yulong Snow Mountain

Old town of Lijiang is a settlement of Naxi people. When it is sunny, Standing Lijiang and Looking to northwest direction, you will see the magnificent scenery of Yulong Snow Mountain. The boss of the old inn is Naxi people, during the talk with him, he mentioned some stories about Yulong Snow Mountain. Naxi people call the snow mountain as “Boshioulu”, which means silver rock. Legend says that the patron saint of Naxi people, Sanduo, is an embodiment of Yulong Snow Mountain.

Even tough it is a legend, leaning against the mysterious snow town, Lijiang is a certainly a auspicious land in Yunnan from the perspective of fengshui(Feng shui is an ancient art and science developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that reveals how to balance the energies of any given space to assure health and good fortune for people inhabiting it), which is very popular in Shaanxi Province particularly. If you travel  Xian, you will find fengshui theory is widely used in buildings construction.

The main peak of Yulong Snow Mountain is at an altitude of 5,596 meters above sea level, running in straight lines in east-west direction, with east to west of 13 kilometers and north to west of 35 kilometers. When viewing the mountain in Old town Lijiang, you will feel it at a short distance. In fact, if you drive from Lijiang to the mountain foot, it is about 20 kilometers ride.

The essay is quoted from the travel website http://www.travel-xian.com .