Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing

Overview Hotel Lobby Guest room Opening date：Mar.29th 2004 Hotel Address：1 Caiyuan St., Xuanwu District Beijing China Hotel Features：Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing (Beijing Zhonghuan Jiari Jiudian),a four-star hotel is located in Caiyuan Steet, Beijing Guang'anmen Government and commercial area, taking Municipal Government Office Building, Irrigation Bureau, National Tax Bureau and National Information centre as its neighbors, this hotel offers very convenient transportation. General information： 　　Holiday Inn Central Plaza Beijing is managed by Jiari Group Co. It has 16 floors, including two executive floors, offers 322 comfortable , modern and well-furnished guestrooms and suites, some with kitchen facilities, all are equipped with broadband internet access, satellite television, speakerphone and multi-language voicemail. 　　Pillar-free banquet mall occupies an area of 640 square meters, with 8 of multi-function rooms different in size, ranging from 35 to 176 square meters, it is large enough for the company to hold business meetings or to organize social activities and alike. All the meeting rooms are installed with state-of-art audio-visual facilities, build-in workstation closet, wireless broadband Internet connection and video-conference facilities. The professional meeting team will be ready to assist you, when you are in trouble. The hotel also boasts comprehensive facilities including a Chinese restaurant cooking Yue cuisine, coffee shop, lobby lounge, health club, business centre, sauna, indoor swimming pool, boutique, tourist reception clinic, and ticketing office, plus plenty of underground parking. With all these mentioned above, our guests have all gone well pleased.

Traffic&Surrounding landscape： Traffic： 40km from the International Airport   3.5km from the Beijing Railway Station 4km by car away from city center   3.4km from the Beijing West Railway Station Surrounding landscape： 　　The Municipal Government Office Building, Irrigation Bureau, National Tax Bureau and National Information centre, Caiyuan Street, Guanganmen, the West Second Ring. Room Type&Price： Room Type Bed Room Status Member Rate Breakfast Internet Standard Room Twin/kingsize good RMB4600 N/A Surcharge 　　(You have to pay for breakfast when there is N/A in the "Breakfast" column.) Please contact us at 400 660 6666 if you want to book the hotel room or need to know more details about the hotel. Booking Policy： ・The room rate includes the service fee but excludes other hotel charges, taxes and fees resulting from special requests. ・Weekend here referred to as Friday and Saturday. ・The regular time for check-in is 14:00 and the regular check-out time is 12:00 noon. If you need to check in earlier or extend your stay. You will be properly surcharged.(All times shown are GMT + 8 hours.) ・You may check in the hotel at any time during Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, but the hotel has the strict restriction on your check-out date : you must be staying at the hotel for over 15 days following the day you check in. ・Method of Payment: 50 percent of the room fee must be prepaid the day you sign the contract with the hotel, the deadline for paying the remaining part of room fee must be earlier than June 2008.

Olympic Games promulgation clothing issue

Xinhua News :Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee on 17th evening “798” the artistic area conducts “Beijing Olympic Games promulgation etiquette clothing and the main promulgation element issue ceremony” in Beijing, had issued the Olympic Games will promulgate the specialized volunteer will be putting on at the award ceremony the formal clothes and the etiquette use the shoes, simultaneously had issued will proclaim the award platform, the promulgation bouquet of flowers, the athlete to win an award the certificate and so on main promulgation element.

Beijing Olympic Games promulgation etiquette clothing altogether has 16 sections. And the female attire 15 sections divide into five series, each series of deferred to the honored guest aimer, the athlete aimer and tray's different function separately has designed three different designs. At Beijing Olympic Games 302 with at Paralympic Game's 472 award ceremony, these 5 series's formal clothes will appear separately in the different facility and the competition.

“the blue and white porcelain” the series design inspiration is from the Chinese tobacco mosaic chinaware, will use, in the country swims the center “the water cube”, the Shunyi aquatic park and Qingdao and so on all aquatic project award ceremony; “sapphire blue” the series uses the mild elegant valuable blue color to take the formal clothes essential color, will appear in project and so on gymnastics, indoor ball games competition and fencing promulgation scenes; “the country Chinese scholartree will be green” the series silk and satin formal clothes in the bicycle, the fire, the modern five items and so on at the project award ceremonies to use; “the jade fat was white” the series to echo the Olympic Games medal Jin Xiangyu idea ingeniously, will appear in the national stadium, in all outdoor ball games competition as well as Hong Kong horse-riding competition; “the pink color” the series clothing will appear mainly in strength competitions and so on boxing, weight lifting, wrestling, comes the neutral competition's male character gently beautifully by the pink color.

The Beijing Olympic Games promulgation etiquette clothing only model of men's clothing to rise the standard-bearer clothing: Coordinates with each other across a great distance with the blue and white porcelain formal clothes rises the standard-bearer clothing, while manifests China traditional culture not to lose the male character, will appear in all Olympic Games and the Paralympic Game competition facility. All Olympic Games formal clothes and hoist a flag the hand made clothing embroiders has “BEIJING2008” the inscription.

According to the Olympic Games convention, awards the gold medal, the silver medal, the bronze medal forward besides three athletes, but must eight prize athletes issue the prize certificate forward. Beijing Olympic Games prize certificate's design used China to have two millennium many year long history tradition ancient silk silks craft, the xuan paper request to mount and the auspicious cloud design.

The Olympic Games opening ceremony dress rehearsal is successful

Zhongxinwang on July 12 the Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony was guarding the stern Chinese country stadium in the day before yesterday (“bird nest”) to hold for the first time the large-scale belt zhuang dress rehearsal. According to the Singapore United Zaobao reported that Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee spokesperson Sun Weide disclosed to Agence France Presse, “(dress rehearsal) is successful.”

The report said that this Wan Zhong anticipated the performance had already arranged for three years, the investment actor over ten thousand people, but the content detail has been “top-secret”. The participants must sign a treaty the security.

The opening ceremony is three-and-a-half hours, including 50 minutes to give a performance, the athlete to enter the arena the ceremony, as well as entire opening ceremony biggest focus of attention - - ceremonial fire ignition ceremony.

According to the media reported early, to prevent the dress rehearsal to cause the opening ceremony program content to reveal ahead of time, Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee has taken the strict security. “the bird nest” the periphery alert is stern, besides has the pass staff, in reporter as well as the miscellaneous personnel all do not enter. “the bird nest” the periphery altogether has three isolation guard rails, guards by the public security armed police, outside each isolation guard rail locked, works the vehicles turnover “the bird nest” only then the armed police to open the iron lock to be able to pass through. “the bird nest” the sky commanding point by the general blockade, is also prevented some person of upper airs to photograph surreptitiously.

In order to coordinate opening ceremony's need, “the bird nest” the crown night before last also has the staff to carry on the final construction, they are also the first batch watch the Olympic Games opening ceremony dress rehearsal “the audience”, but they have signed the confidentiality agreement, do not reveal the least bit opening ceremony's content.

Holds the post the closing ceremony director renowned China film maker Zhang Yimou accepts when CCTV interview stressed that performs can be China in 5000 the magnificent historical direct-viewing display, what is most important is must let the audience obtain enjoys and is moved.

Bird's Nest

Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest/Olympic Stadium)

The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the bird's nest will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics and will be host to the Opening and Closing ceremonies. In 2002 Government officials engaged architects worldwide in a design competition. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron collaborated with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group to win the competition. The stadium will seat as many as 100,000 spectators during the Olympics, but this will be reduced to 80,000 after the games. It has replaced the original intended venue of the Guangdong Olympic Stadium. The stadium is 330 metres long by 220 metres wide, and is 69.2 metres tall. The 250,000 square metre (gross floor area) stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. The stadium will cost up to 3.5 billion yuan (422,873,850 USD/ 325,395,593 EUR). The ground was broken in December 2003, and construction started in March 2004, but was halted by the high construction cost in August 2004.

In the new design, the roof of the stadium had been omitted from the design. Experts say that this will make the stadium safer, whilst reducing construction costs. The construction of the Olympic buildings will continue once again in the beginning of 2005.

In depth The stadium's appearance is one of synergy, with no distinction made between the facade and the superstructure. The structural elements mutually support each other and converge into a grid-like formation - almost like a bird's nest with its interwoven twigs. The spatial effect of the stadium is novel and radical, yet simple and of an almost archaic immediacy, thus creating a unique historical landmark for the Olympics of 2008.

The stadium was conceived as a large collective vessel, which makes a distinctive and unmistakable impression both from a distance and when seen from up close. It meets all the functional and technical requirements of an Olympic National Stadium, but without communicating the insistent sameness of technocratic architecture dominated by large spans and digital screens.

Visitors walk through this formation and enter the spacious ambulatory that runs full circle around the stands. From there, one can survey the circulation of the entire area including the stairs that access the three tiers of the stands. Functioning like an arcade or a concourse, the lobby is a covered urban space with restaurants and stores that invite visitors to stroll around. Just as birds stuff the spaces between the woven twigs of their nests with a soft filler, the spaces in the structure of the stadium will be filled with inflated ETFE cushions. Originally, on the roof, the cushions were to be mounted on the outside of the structure to make the roof completely weatherproof, but the roof has been omitted from the design in 2004.

While the rain was to be collected for rainwater recuperation, the sunlight was to filter through the translucent roof, providing the lawn with essential ultraviolet radiation. On the facade, the inflated cushions will be mounted on the inside of the structure where necessary, e.g. to provide wind protection. Since all of the facilities -- restaurants, suites, shops and restrooms -- are all self-contained units, it is possible to do largely without a solid, enclosed facade. This allows for natural ventilation of the stadium, which is the most important aspect of the stadium's sustainable design.

The sliding roof was an integral part of the stadium structure. When it was to be closed, it would have converted the stadium into a covered arena; however, the sliding roof was eliminated in an effort to cut costs and increase overall safety of the radical new structure.

Yuanmingyuan

Being the cream of Chinese imperial gardens, Yuanmingyuan was world renowned as "Leader of Gardens". Its construction began in the 48th year of Emperor Kangxi's Reign (1709). It comprised three gardens centered on Fuhai (Lake of Fortune): Changchungyuan (Garden of Everlasting Spring) lying in the east, Yuanmingyuan (Garden of Perfection and Brightness) in the west, and Wangchungyuan (Garden of Ten-thousand Springs) in the south. Yuanmingyuan was a resort used by the feudal rulers for rest and pleasure as well as for holding audiences and attending to state affairs. Its unique architectures and accompanying scenery embodied the finest styles found in scenic spots and places of interests both in China and abroad. Most of the buildings were in the best traditional Chinese palace architectural styles, while occidental styles of arts in palace construction were also absorbed to produce a harmonious combination. One of the examples was the group of the "Western Buildings" in Changchungyuan, of which the main body was modeled on Barolk style but topped with traditional Chinese glazed-tile roofs. As a creation, the perfect combination of Chinese and western architectures added fresh contents to Chinese garden construction.

One-third of the ground of Yuanmingyuan was taken up by over 200 small hills in the scenic area where precipitous cliffs, secluded valleys, steep rock walls and stone caves zigzagged their way about. Half of it was covered by waters of the vast lake and the serpentine streams and ponds. In Yuanmingyuan there were towers, terraces, pavilions, halls, corridors, pagodas, bridges etc. of different sizes, with a total construction area of 150,000 square meters, corresponding to that of the Imperial Palace. The multifarious architectures standing encircled by hills and rivulets and amidstbeautiful flowers and exquisite waters, presented a picturesque view. Of the total 160 scenic attractions in Yuanmingyuan, many were imitations of scenic mountains and rivers and famous gardens in China.

Unfortunately, this Leader of Gardens?was reduced to ruins by the fire the invading Anglo-French Joint Forces set to it in 1860, which lasted three days and nights. The remaining columns of the Eastern Buildings?and other ruins serve as a reminder of the barbarity as well as the fierce resistance then.

Tiantan Park

The Temple of Heaven, (Tiantan), is located in the Chongwen district in the south part of Beijing, about 6km away from the center of the city. It was built in 1420 during a time when many other important structures were constructed in Beijing. Tiantan served as a place of ceremony and ritual for the Ming and Qing emperors.

The Palace of Abstinence is located near the western entrance of the temple. Before each ceremony, emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties held a three-day fast during summer and winter solstice. The emperors spent two days fasting in the Forbidden City and completed the three-day fast in the Palace of Abstinence. The beamless hall was one of the most famous buildings in Beijing.

South of the Echo wall stands the Altar of Heaven, built entirely of white marble. The altar has four entrances and a flight of nine steps leading down in every direction. At the center of the upper terrace lies a round stone surrounded by nine concentric rings of stones.

Even the numbers of the carved balustrades on these terraces are also multiples of nine. When you stand in the center of the upper terrace and speak in a low voice, your voice will echo back much louder to yourself than to others, as the sound waves are reflected back by the marble balustrades to the focal point at the center.

The main building in the compound is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. The entire structure was joint by wooden bars, laths and brackets, without using steel and concrete. The four large pillars in the center are known as the Dragon Well Pillars with each pillar representing one of the four seasons.

The Ming Tombs

The Ming Tombs are located in Changping district, about 50 kilometers to the northwest of Beijing city.

During the Ming Dynasty, there were 14 emperors from the Yongle Reign of Zhudi to the Chongzhen Reign of Zhuyoujian. 13 emperors had their tombs built there except Zhuqiyu (the Jingtai Reign) who was buried at Golden Mountain in the western suburbs of Beijing, hence the name of the Tombs of 13 Ming Emperors (The Ming Tombs). Covering an area of 40 hectares, the burial ground at its entrance has the Mangshan Hill (Snake Hill) on the left and the Huyu Hill (Tiger Hill) on the right, symbolizing the Tombs' Entrance Gate was guarded by the "Green Dragon" and the "White Tiger". Getting into the Mausoleum area, you first sight a stone archway which is the largest as well as the oldest extant one in China. Further down the pathway, stands the main gate (Dagong Gate) fronted by a stone tablet with the inscription of "All Persons Inclusive of Officials Dismount here!" Inside the Dagong Gate lies, south to north, a 750-meter-long road known as the Shandao (Sacred Way), lined with 36 vivid stone statues of Men and Animals (in 18 pairs) and 9 groups of 4 same statues each (two standing and two crouching). All statues were carved out of one single block of stone.

Among the 13 Ming Tombs, each located at the foot of a small hill, only the Tombs of Changling and Dingling are open to public at present.

Encompassing an area of 10 hectares, Changling, the tomb for Emperor Zhudi and his wife lies at the foot of Tianshoushan (the Mountain of Heavenly Longevity). It comprises three courtyards with Changling Hall, or the Lingsi Hall on par with Taihe Hall (Hall of Supreme Harmony) of the Palace Museum, Dacheng Hall of Confucius Temple in Qufu of Shangdong Province and Tiankuang Hall of Dai Temple at the foot of Taishan. The Changling Hall covers an area of 1956.44 square meters, that surpassing that of the Taihe Hall (Hall of Supreme Harmony). It is supported by 60 precious columns, each made of a whole trunk of nanmu and remaining intact without any protection after 500 years.

Dingling, the mausoleum of Emperor Zhuyijun of the Ming Dynasty and his two empresses Xiaoduan and Xiaojing is located at the foot of Dayu Mountain. Lying 27 meters below the surface and covering an area of 1195 square meters, the Underground Palace is composed of 5 Chambers: the Front, the Middle, and the Rear Chambers, Left and Right Annex Chambers. The Rear Chamber, 9.5 meters high, 30.1 meters long and 9.1 meters wide is the largest. In the Chamber, the coffin of Emperor Zhuyijun is placed on the middle of the stone couch, with his two wives' coffins on each side. Over 3000 pieces of historical relics were unearthed from the Underground Palace. Among them, the Gold Crown and the Phoenix Crown are the unique treasures.

China’s Visa Policy Threatens Olympics Tourism

BEIJING ― The plush lobby of Beijing's Kerry Center Hotel is usually crowded with foreign guests, many of them listening to jazz and sipping martinis in Centro, the hotel's fashionable bar, or lining up for taxis after dinner at the Horizon restaurant.
But Thursday evening, Centro had only a sprinkling of guests in a hotel whose occupancy rate is typically close to 100 percent this time of year. That night, the duty manager, said it was 63 percent.

"Something strange has been going on," said Sun Yin, the duty manager. "I really don't know what happened."

With the Beijing Olympics less than two months away, hotel operators, travel agencies, and foreign businessmen say new Chinese visa restrictions are proving bad for business, casting a pall over Beijing during what was supposed to be a busy and jubilant tourist season leading up to the Olympic Games.

Chinese authorities acknowledged putting new visa restrictions in place in May ― after foreign embassies reported fewer visas being granted and tighter, sometimes seemingly arbitrary, restrictions. The government did not release guidelines detailing the changes in policy; it often does not. But a foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said in May that they would be temporary.

On Monday, Hu Bin, a visa official at the foreign ministry, said the ministry had no statistics on the number of visa denials, but that the new policies were put in place for "security considerations."


Travel business analysts had forecast that the Games would bring 500,000 foreign visitors and an extra $4.5 billion in revenue to Beijing this summer. But now, even though some five-star hotels are fully booked for the Olympics, many economists are beginning to doubt the city will get the kind of economic windfall it was hoping for.

Many hotels in Beijing are struggling to find guests; some large travel agencies have temporarily closed branches; and people scheduled to travel here for seminars and conferences are canceling. The number of foreign tourists visiting Beijing fell sharply in May, dropping by 14 percent, according to the city's statistics bureau.

Beijing residents, meanwhile, are complaining that heightened security measures could spoil what was supposed to be Beijing's long anticipated coming-out party. Despite years of careful preparation ― including teaching taxi drivers English and instructing locals in how to wait in a line (not common here), and spending billions on mammoth building projects for these Games ― Beijing is starting to appear less welcoming to foreigners.

"Business is so bleak," said Di Jian, the sales manager at the Capital Hotel in Beijing. "Since May, very few foreigners have checked in. Our occupancy rate has dropped by 40 percent."

Many other cities in China are also feeling the pain of fewer tourists, including Shanghai, where some hotels say occupancy rates are down 15 to 20 percent.

The government has publicized its determination to combat possible threats to the Games, including suicide bombings, bus hijackings and chemical attacks. In April, Interpol warned that a terrorist attack during the Beijing Olympics is a "real possibility." And in a year plagued by riots in Tibet, protests of the Olympic torch relay, a terrorist plot to kidnap journalists covering the Olympics (according to Beijing officials) and the Sichuan earthquake, the government is stressing public safety above all else.

But Beijing appears to be less concerned about hosting a global party and more concerned with making sure no one spoils it. Officials announced Thursday that 100,000 commandos, police and army troops would be placed on high alert during the Games.

The heightened sense of alert over security threats in the capital has done something else too: it has spawned a huge number of rumors about other actions the government may or may not be taking.

Among them: a border region with North Korea has been closed to prevent security risks; foreign students and migrant workers are being asked to leave Beijing during the Olympics; all volunteers need to register with the police; bars will be forced to close early; and all outdoor parties planned for the three-week-long Olympic celebration have been banned, putting the hex on some of the entertaining events that had been planned for the Games.

The Beijing police and security officials denied some of the reports, but also, at times, insisted in telephone interviews last week that they could not disclose some security matters. Poor official communication about regulations and restrictions in Beijing may be contributing to public uncertainty and feeding the rumor mill. Nothing is more of an obstacle than the new visa policy. Businessmen, particularly from the United States, Hong Kong and Taiwan, have complained that new visa restrictions have prevented business meetings from taking place and crimped deal making.

Many Hong Kong-based businessmen, for example, say new visa rules require frequent and complicated applications, often including proof of a hotel booking, round-trip airline tickets, and in some cases, a letter of invitation.

"It's kind of draconian," said Richard Vuylsteke, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which represents American companies doing business in the region. "But politics and security trump economics, especially during the Olympics. We just hope that after the Olympics things will change."

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in Beijing has also complained to China's foreign ministry.

Chinese hotel operators are also frustrated. A hotel construction boom in which the number of four- and five-star hotels in Beijing jumped from about 64 in 2001 to 161 as of the end of April, according to government figures, is beginning to look overly optimistic. Many hotels are still under construction in a city that now has over 5,000 hotels.

Hotel operators also say the earthquake and Olympic torch relay protests may be having an impact on tourism. "Usually May and June are the busy season for our hotel," said Jiang Zhiqiang, a spokesman for the New Otani Changfugong Hotel in Beijing. "This year is quite unusual. I think several natural and man-made disasters happened subsequently, which hurt our business."

With the opening ceremony of the Olympics just seven weeks away, only 44 percent of the rooms in four star hotels and 77 percent of five-star hotel rooms are booked, according to the Beijing Tourist Bureau.

If visitors cannot get visas to enter the country, many of those hotels may be forced to slash rates, which had jumped as high as $2,000 a night when prospects were brighter.

In some ways, the hotels are also on the front lines of the security crackdown. They typically share lists of their guests with the government, on a daily basis. But now they are being asked to supply photographs of all their employees too, as well as help the government in visa approvals, some hotel managers said.

Many large tourism agencies have already given up. "Now most of my colleagues for inbound tourism don't come to work," said Wang Ge, director of the inbound tourism department at the Beijing Tourism Group. "We have no clients this month."

Indeed, when an American called the China Travel Guide Tourist Agency last week, a sales clerk even discouraged the person from visiting Beijing during the Olympics.

"You really don't want to go there," said Lorna Liu, the sales representative at China Travel Guide. "Why don't you try Xi'an or Shanghai and visit Beijing a little later?"

-Ends-

Behai Park

Beihai (North Lake) Park, named in conjunction with Middle Lake and South Lake, is situated to the west of the Palace Museum and Jingshan Park in Beijing. It covers a total area of over 68 hectares. More than half of it is taken up by the lake. The Park, broad in scale and elegantly arranged, is a beautiful imperial garden in Beijing as well as a masterpiece of ancient Chinese gardens still standing.

The main scenic spots of Beihai Park consist of three parts. The southern part comprises mainly the Round City, the middle part, the Yong an(Eternal Peace) Temple, White Dagoba and Yuexin Palace on Qionghua Islet and the northern part, the Five Dragon Pavilions, the small Sukhavati Garden and Jingxinzhai (Heart-ease Study).

The Qionghua Islet lies on the southern part of Taiye Lake, with its constructions in total harmony with the Hill terrain and shrouded in green pines and cypresses. In the south there are Yongan Temple, Falun (Wheel of the Law) Hall and the Zhengjue Hall. The Islet links with the shore by a marble bridge in the southeast. With the picturesque Jingshan Park and the splendid Palace Museum standing close by, they enhance each other beauty. Amid the greenness, stands a tablet with an inscription by Emperor Qianlong, of "Qiongdaochunyin" (Spring Shade of Jade Islet) in Qing Dynasty. It's one of the eight famous sights in ancient Beijing. At the northern foot of the Hill and by the lakeside, lies a 60-bay and 2-storeyed corridor, resembling a colorful ribbon tied around the waist of Qionghua Islet. Travelling among the grotesque rocks and through the deep, cool and secluded caves, one moment you come out halfway up the Hill, and another moment, you are down at the bottom, mesmerized by the uncanny creation. The upside down reflections of the buildings on the Hill and the corridor upon the lake are picturesque.

The Round City standing among the Palace Museum, Jingshan Park, Zhongnan Lake and Beihai Lake, enjoys the reputation of being "A City within Beijing City". It is covered by luxuriant pines and cypresses and the buildings with glazed tiles and red walls. It has become a beautiful scenic spot in Beijing.

Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace, also known as the Forbidden City or "Gugong", was the imperial residence and center of the kingdom during the reign of 24 emperors. 14 in the Ming and 10 in the Qing dynasty resided and ruled from this palace for 491 years until Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty and of China. It is now the largest and best preserved ancient architecture in China.
Located in the center of Beijing, the Imperial Palace covers an area of 72 hectares. Rectangular in shape, it runs 960 meter long from north to south. And 750 meter wide extended from east to west. There is a 10-meter high wall, encircled by a 52-meter wide moat.

The palace boasts more than nine thousand rooms, with layout following strict feudal code. The palace is divided into two main sections:- the Front Palace and the Inner palace. In the center of the Front Palace stand the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Complete Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. The Inner Palace includes the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Prosperity, the Hall of Earthly Peace and the Imperial Garden.

There are four gates at each corners of the walls:- The Meridian Gate to the south, the Gate of Divine Military Genius to the north, the East Flowery Gate to the east and the West Flowery Gate to the west. The Gate of Divine Military Genius was the gate connecting the imperial palace with the market area to the north of the palace. It is the largest gate of the Forbidden City, 35.6 meters high and surmounted by five pavilions. The central pavilion is rectangular in shape, while the other four, two on each side are square and hence the nickname is "The Five Phoenix Tower"

The Meridian Gate was so named because the Chinese emperors believed that they lived in the center of the universe, and the Meridian Line went through the Forbidden City.

A pair of bronze lions guards the Gate of Supreme Harmony, symbolizing the imperial power. In China, lions were supposed to be good doorkeepers and put at the gate to ward off evil spirits. Lions are frequently seen in front of buildings as guardians, one playing with a ball (male) and the other a cub (female). It was considered auspicious. The ball is said to represent imperial treasury or peace. The cub sucks milk from underneath the claw, because the female doesn't have breast.

The hall of Supreme Harmony is 35 meter high, 60 meter wide and 33 meter on both sides. It is now the largest, best preserved wooden hall in China. Twenty-four pillars support the roof. The Central six are gilded and painted red. The Emperor throne, which is surrounded by art treasures of symbolic significance, is in the middle of the hall.

Above the throne is gold painted caisson, or coffer ceiling, with dragon designs, from which hangs a spherical pearl called The Xu Anyuan mirror?

Three flights of marble steps leads up to the terrace In the middle of the central flight is a huge carving in the design of Dragons playing with pearls over which the emperors sedan chairs were carried. At the east corner of the terrace is a sundial, and at the west corner stands a small temple in which the grain measure was kept. The sundial and grain measure is both symbols of rectitude and fairness.

Behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony, between the stairways, is a huge one-piece marble carving of Dragons playing with pearls? This marble was brought here all the way from Fang Shan District, about 70 km away from Beijing City proper. It is about 17 meters long, 3 meters wide and 1.7 meters thick, weighing about 250 tons. Without any modern means of transportation, you can imagine how difficult it was for the Chinese laborer to transport such a huge piece of stone here!

Facing the Gate of Imperial Supremacy in the Hall of Jewelry is the famous Nine Dragon Screen, the best of its kind and the biggest in China. The main body of the screen was engraved with nine huge dragons. Each dragon is playing with a jewelry ball, each with different unique appearance. The dragons were painted with different colors with three dimension visual appearance and were handcrafted with highest skill of workmanship. It is truly the most beautiful piece of art.
The Imperial Palace is the largest museum in China; it preserves more than 900,000 priceless antiques covering all dynasties of Chinese history. It has been recognized as the biggest and most important treasury house of Chinese culture and arts in the world.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square


The Tiananmen Square on the north to south axis is at the center of Beijing city. It's the largest square in the world, encompassing an area of 14 hectares, and measuring 865 meters north to south, and 500 and 370 meters east to west on the northern and southern ends respectively.
The Five-Star Red Flag flutters high above the mid-point of the square's north side. Everyday, at dawn and dusk, the Guards march in unison to the foot of the flagstaff to hoist or lower the National Flag, saluted with eyes by the on-lookers.

The Monument to the People's Heroes towers over the center of the square. To its south lies Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall. The Chinese Revolutionary Museum and the Chinese History Museum stand to the east of the square, the Great Hall of the People to the west and the magnificent Heavenly Peace Gate Tower to the north. The Tower is adjoined on its left side by the Zhongshan Park and on the right side by the Working People's Palace of Culture. Opposite the tower in the far south is the Zhengyang Gate Tower. These fine and unique buildings arranged in perfect harmony add greater beauty and grandeur to the Tiananmen Square.
The Tiananmen Square is the people's square, where grand state ceremonies are held on important occasions.

Beijing History

Though it lies north of the traditional Han Chinese heartland, Beijing has been at the center of China's cultural and political life for the better part of seven centuries. The city gained its prominence in the 13th century AD when it was established by Mongol ruler Kublai Khan as capital of the Yuan Dynasty under the names Khanbaliq (Mongolian for "grand home of the Khan") and Dadu ("great capital"). It was this metropolis that impressed Marco Polo, whose tales of his time in the court of the Khan inspired generations of European explorers to seek better trade routes to the East.

The archeological record shows human settlement in the Beijing area long before Kublai Khan―as early as the 11th century BC. By the 8th century AD, the Yan Kingdom established its capital of Yanjing in the area, giving way after the Warring States Period to the Qin Dynasty, which united China in 221 BC. The Qin, whose capital was Xiangyang near today's Xian, demoted the Yan capital to a regional seat of government. For centuries after, the city, then known as Jicheng, remained a center of trade and governance and a military outpost defending China from aggressive northern tribes. In 938 AD the northern Liao Dynasty established a second capital in Beijing, which they called Nanjing (Southern Capital). The Liao built the first city walls, which were expanded by the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, who made it their capital in 1153, calling it Zhongdu (Middle Capital).

After Genghis Khan's Mongols destroyed the Jin, razing their capital, his son, Kublai, established Dadu, whose basic layout remains in present-day Beijing. From his capital Kublai ruled the largest empire the world has ever seen. However, it wasn't until Ming Dynasty ruler Yongle (1403-1425) showed up that the prominent landmarks of today's Beijing made the scene. Yongle, an ethnic Han Chinese, leveled all Yuan Dynasty buildings, determined to erase all traces of Mongol rule over China, and initiated construction of the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. Yongle also gave the city a new name: Beijing (Northern Capital).

As the capital of imperial China for the next 586 years, Beijing witnessed wars, corrupt Emperors and Empresses, foreign attacks (the British and French in 1860) and rebellions (the Boxers in 1900, for one). It also presided over prosperous times and the cultivation of arts, scholarship, philosophy and religion. As the Qing (1644-1911) decayed at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth, ceding territory to Western colonial powers and Japan, Beijing became a center of political agitation as nationalist students demonstrated against Qing corruption and in favor of modernizing China. The city fell into turmoil after the fall of the Qing, changing hands repeatedly during 1911 and 1912.

From 1912 to 1927, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hankou alternated as centers of government. Students and other reform-minded nationalist Chinese continued to work for a modernized China, with the May Fourth Movement emerging from 1919 protests against the transference of Germany's Chinese concessions to the Japanese in the wake of World War I. This dissent would continue, feeding into the Communist movement and, eventually, the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

The end of World War II brought the abolition of all foreign concessions in the city and the the end of the Japanese occupation that began in 1937, and Beijing was restored to Chinese sovereignty. After four more years of civil war the Communists emerged victorious, and on October 1, 1949 in Tian'anmen Square Mao Zedong proclaimed Beijing the capital of the People's Republic of China. As previous rulers had often done, Mao made a symbolic break with the previous order by reinventing the capital. Between 1965 and 1969, the old city wall was torn down. Hundreds of temples and monuments were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and old neighborhoods were leveled to broaden boulevards and enlarge Tian'anmen Square.

The upheaval of the Cultural Revolution ended with Mao's death in 1976, and in the transitional years that followed, China began opening its economy under Deng Xiaoping. Along with economic changes, many Chinese began to look for increased freedom of expression and broader political reform. Beijing students took the lead, challenging the status quo with the Democracy Wall in 1978-1979 and a decade later with the protests that culminated in the tragic 1989 Tian'anmen Square face-off between the People's Liberation Army and demonstrators. Deng's economic reforms have continued under subsequent leadership, fueling China's epic economic boom.

Beijing, Jing for short, is the nation's political, economic, cultural and educational center as well as China's most important center for international trade and communications. Together with Xian, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Nanjing and Hangzhou, Beijing is one of the six ancient cities in China. It has been the heart and soul of politics and society throughout its long history and consequently there is an unparalleled wealth of discovery to delight and intrigue travelers as they explore Beijing's ancient past and enjoy its exciting modern development.

As the capital of the People's Republic of China, Beijing is located in northern China, close to Tianjin Municipality and partially surrounded by Hebei Province. The city covers an area of more than 16,410 square kilometers (6336 square miles) and has a population of 14.93 million people.

Beijing is a city with four distinct seasons. Its best is late spring and autumn. But autumn is taken as the golden tourist season of the year since there is sometimes in the spring of recent years, a yellow wind. We suggest tourists visit Beijing during the months of May, September, and October when people can enjoy bright sunshine and blue skies. An abundance of international class performances are presented in May. If you like winter, you will have other chances to appreciate another landscape of Beijing. After skiing in Beihai and viewing the snowy sights on West Hill, enjoying the steaming hotpot is the best choice, which is really the fun of tour in Beijing. Please keep warm and remember to bring your down garments and sweaters when you visit Beijing in the winter.

How can one city boast so many phenomenal places? Beijing's long and illustrious history started some 500,000 years ago. It is here that the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens, Peking men, lived in caves. Records show that Beijing has been an inhabited city for more than three thousand years and has endured invasions by warlords and foreign powers, devastating fires, the rise and fall of powerful imperial dynasties and has emerged each time as a strong and vibrant city. For more than 800 years, Beijing was a capital city - from the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368) to the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties. Thirty-four emperors have lived and ruled the nation in Beijing and it has been an important trading city from its earliest days.

Although now Beijing is a modern and fashionable city complete with a full 21st Century vitality, you can experience authentic Beijing life and become acquainted with 'old Beijing' by exploring its many teahouses, temple fairs, Beijing's Hutong and Courtyard and enjoy the Peking Opera. Add any or all of these to your Beijing tour and you will leave with a feeling of special appreciation in your heart for this ancient city that has truly seen it all and tells its story with matchless grace, charm and vigor.

With the biggest central square in the world - Tian'anmen Square, the Forbidden City that is the largest and best-preserved imperial palace complex, a superbly preserved section of the Great Wall,as well as the largest sacrificial complex in the world - the Temple of Heaven, Beijing attracts both domestic and foreign visitors who all come to wonder at its century-old history and unique cultural relics.

Dwelling too much on the historical past of Beijing may give tourists the false impression that it is little more than an ancient city in style but this is definitely not so! Strolling around Beijing, you'll find it has much in common with any other great metropolis elsewhere in today's world. There are towering skyscrapers; busy shopping malls and an endless stream of traffic that makes the city much the same as others. The most famous and popular commercial circles and commercial pedestrian streets are predominantly located near the Yansha Shopping Mall, Tiananmen and Wangfujing Street, Guomao Shopping Mall, Qianmen Street and Xidan Street, etc. However, although you will find multinational chains with their own brands to offer, nowhere else on earth will you find such a variety of gourmet Chinese restaurants offering the very best of the eight different styles of Chinese cuisine as well as western style dishes. Modern hotels abound, each offering the highest standards of service and convenience.

After a day's Beijing tours, nighttime can hold other surprises for you. These can vary from traditional performances such as the Beijing Opera, acrobatics and martial arts to modern ones including concerts, ballroom dancing, pubs and clubs. Each and every one has its individual enchantment for the tourist. No description of our capital city is complete without mention of the friendly people who throng the streets. Everywhere you will encounter smiling faces and a warm welcome, especially from the children who love to say 'Hello!' All these things add up to truly make your visit a cultural experience of a lifetime.