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Gallery of the NationsMust See Sites on a China Vacation
The Forbidden CityThe Forbidden City is the former imperial palace in the very center of the city of Beijing. The construction of the Forbidden City was started in 1406 and completed in 1420. For nearly 500 years, it was the residence of the Chinese emperor and the center of Chinese government. The Forbidden City is the innermost rectangle of a contiguous set of rectangles made up of the Imperial City enclosing the Forbidden City; the Inner City which contains the Imperial City; and the Outer City which encloses the Inner City. The Forbidden City today is a rectangular complex of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms on a 720,000 square meter lot. When the founder of the Ming Dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor, decided to move the capital of China from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the south, he ordered that the Yuan palaces, situated on the Imperial city, be destroyed. His son, the Yongle Emperor, moved the capital back to Beijing and began construction of the Forbidden City in 1406. The Forbidden City remained the seat of the Ming Dynasty from 1420, when construction of the palace was completed, till 1644, when the Ming Dynasty was sacked. The Qing Dynasty which took Over from the Ming renamed the main buildings in the Forbidden City to emphasize "harmony" rather than "supremacy." English and French forces occupied the Forbidden City toward the end of the second Opium War in 1860. When the Treaty Powers - Britain, France, Japan, Russia, Germany, and the United States - occupied Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Dowager Empress Cixi was forced to flee the Forbidden City until the following year. When the last emperor of China, Puyi, abdicated in 1912, the Forbidden City ceased to be the center of Chinese government. Puyi would remain in the Inner Court, while the Outer Court was put to public use. He would remain in the palace until 1924 when he was finally evicted following a coup.
After 504 years of being the home of 24 emperors — fourteen Ming Dynasty emperors and ten emperors of the Qing Dynasty — the Forbidden City was turned into a museum, The Palace Museum, in 1924. In 1987 the UNESCO designated the Forbidden City a World Heritage Site in 1987 citing its significance in the development of Chinese architecture and culture.
The Great Wall of ChinaThe earliest of the "great walls" were built across parts of China's northern frontier beginning from the 3rd century BC. No trace of these early walls - attributed to Qin Shihuangdi (First Emperor of China) and made of pounded layers of earth alternating with stones and twigs inside wooden frames - exists today. The "Great Walls" that survive to this day were constructed in the late 15th century AD by Ming emperors. The Ming walls were built to keep out Mongol invaders. They were at first built the traditional way, but later, in the 16th century they began to be built of stone by well-paid masons.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, the network of walls had reached about 2400 kilometers in length. The wall extended from Qinhuangdao in the east in Hebei Province to the west near Jiayuguan in Gansu Province. But it was not complete. There were many areas without walls. Near the capital, Beijing, the walls measured an impressive 25 feet in height and 30feet wide. There are inner and outer walls with some stretches featuring watch towers at regular intervals. During Chairman Mao's cultural revolution in 1966, the walls surrounding Beijing were torn down and used for quarry. During the 1980s under a different political climate, renovation work began on the Ming Walls.
Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and HorsesThe first emperor of China, Qin Shihuangdi, was a man obsessed with immortality. He traveled his empire and consulted magicians in search of a portion that would give him eternal life. Having failed in the search for
The tomb was nevertheless discovered in 1974 and on its site, near the modern city of Xi’an, the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses has been established.
China FestivalsThe Spring FestivalThe Spring Festival is the oldest and most important traditional festival in China. The date of the Chinese new year or spring festival is determined by the lunar calendar. Celebrations begin on the eve of the first lunar month - the new moon that falls between January 21 and February 19. It ends 15 days later with the lantern festival. Preparations for the Spring Festival begins a week before as people give their homes thorough cleaning to sweep out the old year and all bad luck. Debts are paid off; children are enjoined to be on their best behavior. On the eve of the lunar new year there is a feast. At the stroke of midnight there are firework displays that last until dawn. People emerge on new year's day in new clothes and share gifts with family and friends. There are spectacular dragon dances. At the end of festivities 15 days later, the Lantern Festival is held in which store keepers hang paper lanterns outside their shops and children walk down the street with lanterns of different shapes. Other festivals that the Chinese observe include Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival |
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