It was inscripted by UNESCO in 1998 as a world heritage centre and the following is taken from their site;

Justification for Inscription
Criterion i: The Summer Palace in Beijing is an outstanding expression of the creative art of Chinese landscape garden design, incorporating the works of humankind and nature in a harmonious whole. Criterion ii: The Summer Palace epitomizes the philosophy and practice of Chinese garden design, which played a key role in the development of this cultural form throughout the East. Criterion iii: The imperial Chinese garden, illustrated by the Summer Palace, is a potent symbol of one of the major world civilizations.

The Summer Palace is approximately 20 km north west of Beijing and covers an area of around 3 km (290 hectares) and has over 3,000 individual buildings. The main parts of the Summer Palace are “Longevity Hill”, “Kunming lake” and “The Long Corridor”.

Longevity Hill has all the best buildings to look at. “The Cloud-Dispelling Hall”, “Temple of Buddhist Virtue” and the “Sea of Wisdom Temple” are all located here.

And perhaps the biggest man made lake ive seen is “Kunming Lake”. Well it started as a natural lake around 3,500 years ago and takes up about ¾s of the total area. You can also take boat trips around the lake and if its cold enough you can go ice skating. Belive me its hard to imagein as when I was here it was 40 degrees!

The last of the main attractions so to speak is the Long Corridor. It is about 250 m long and is parrallel to Kunning lake. This is also the longest path in the garden and has nearly 15000 Chinese paintings!

Be careful when leaving the Summer Palace as there are TWO exits. Or two entrances depending on how you look at it The exits are the East Palace Gate and the North Palace Gate. I think most people seemed to enter from the East gate.

The Summer Palace, Beijing, Travel Photos

You can see the Temple of Heaven just beyond the entrance. I didn’t want to show another photo of the actual Temple of Heaven on my travel blog as I’m sure you’ve all seen it before. So thought this was a welcoming change. Other parts of interest were the Echo Wall, The Round Altar and the Imperial Vault of Heaven.

This Echo wall is around 65 metres in diameter and if two people stand opposite each other on the other sides of the wall, you can hear the other whispering. Obviously you need to try it when there isn’t 50 other people trying the same!

The Round Altar is a raised platform about 5m high, and is made from a series of raising circle platforms. The top piece has one slightly higher circular stone, which is surrounded by circles of 9 other stone pieces. Everything here basically consists of multiples of 9. From rows of stones to staircases. This was because Chinese believe that odd numbers are somehow heavenly, and 9 is the highest singular odd number so is thought to be the most heavenly.

If I remember correctly The Temple of Heaven park was open from 6am to 9pm, and the actual sights open from 8am-6pm. And cost about Y30 to get in.

My Temple of Heaven travel photos

Beijing is without a doubt the busiest place I have been to, including Hong Kong. It is situated in the Scandinavian part of China. Beijing city has an area of about 17²km with a population of 14 million people. Now that is big! A quarter of the UK in one city!!!

Beijing is the capital of China and is the centre of their political, economic and cultural world. Beijing plays a very important part to the education of the Chinese with the best universities in Beijing.

My flight to Beijing was pretty good, I flew with British Airways and received excellent service, but as usual still became uncomfortable after a while if only I could have flown to Beijing first class. Just reminded myself I have travelled first class with Emirates to the Maldives which was amazing. But this was a cheap flight, as had many others to pay for. Arriving at Beijing airport I was immediately hassled for money from the toilet cleaners, needless to say I didn’t give them anything I had just paid a fortune for the ticket.

Anyway I stayed in the Beijing Far East International Youth Hostel which was really nice, I also got to stay in their Beijing hotel opposite! I Couldn’t stay in youth hostels the whole time.

Now my lunch is over so I had better get back to work and finish this later.

Beijing Travel Photos

After a 32 hour train journey (even though it was a luxury train journey with nice beds and flat screens) I was still wondering why I never brought a cheap flight to Chengdu then I remember my other internal flight in China and remember why! They didn’t have the greatest of safety records, and the landing was by no means the best I have encountered, but I was warned! The rough guide actually advises you to take other means of transport over internal flights in China.

Anyway after meeting a Chinese English teacher who desperately wanted to make the most of us English to practice on decided to take us on a tour of Chengdu. For half the day we sat in a Chinese tea garden drinking many cups of tea. I mean free refills all day how can you resist?

And after that we didn’t need any of the Chengdu car hire companies courtesy of our new guide, so off we went round the back streets to get a traditional Chengdu Hotpot.

Yes that is a frog and worse its actually still alive! Chinese like their food fresh! The worst part of this dish was watching our guide dive in with his chopsticks and pull off the frogs head and eat it whole, to then spit the scull out. This is the delicacy. I did eat the frog but didn’t dare try the head on the second frog. The meat wasn’t too bad as you could wash down with a nice beer, but the skin tasted just like 9v battery terminals across your tongue. The actual organs were pretty horrid too.

The hotpot consisted of two half’s, one side for hot & spicy the other sweet & sour in a dish which looked pretty much like the yin yang symbol.

Other tasty ingredients consisted of ducks intestine, ox stomach, cow tongue and some other stuff which our guide couldn’t translate so im still puzzled today. What really worried me was that the two little pots of powder I was sprinkling on consisted of MSG and Opium!

All in all Chengdu was a fantastic trip especially to get to see the Giant Pandas, but due to our Hotel forgetting to book our train journey had a very unpleasant hour arguing with them as we had no where to stay! Everywhere else was fully booked which they found highly amusing.

I have to say I couldn’t wait to get to Shanghai after this!

Short answer YES! It was absolutely amazing to see Pandas in an almost real environment, they were extremely well looked after in their nature reserve. Unlike other relations in the Beijing Zoo where I have heard many stories of money being thrown at the animals to get a reaction!

I even got to hand feed some young Red Pandas, I even got to hold one. Normally I wouldn’t be up for this due to the welfare of the animals, but I was sterilised and basically couldn’t get them off me after feeding them apples. I had never seen a Chinese Red Panda before or even knew they had existed.

It was unbelievable to see a baby Giant Panda, they are tiny! I was told that if a human were to have a baby in the same proportion as the Giant Panda the child would fit in a match box! The baby is 1/100th of the size of the parent. But due to the small size of the infant it is quite common that the Panda accidently kills it. Most of these deaths are for the first infant as the Pandas are quite scared and do not know what has happened.

Anyway on the positive side latest scientific evidenece using DNA testing on Giant Panda poo in the wild has shown that there are greater numbers of Giant Pandas in existence than previously thought. Lets just hope that the fantastic Wolong Panda Reserve continues to help look after these amazing animals.

Giant Panda Photos

There was a very interesting documentary on the Tiananmen Square Massacre on More4 last week called “Tank Man”.

Well Tiananmen Square is a very recent addition to Beijing, traditionally places where the public could gather were traditionally never built. Unfortunately its construction meant the destruction of some of the walls of the Forbidden City. This area used to be used for Chinese imperial offices which were inside the walls of the Forbidden City and were also connected to the Temple of Heaven and the palace. Tiananmen meaning “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” is the original entrance to the Imperial Palace, generally known as the Forbidden City. It was originally built in 1417 and was also burned down a few times, and its most recent incarnation was built in 1651.

Most notably it is a world recognised symbol of where Mao Tse-tung laid the cornerstone on September 30, 1949, a day before the official establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The location was chosen to represent a break with the feudal dynastic past by being in the middle of the old imperial pathway.

There is an excellent book on Mao called Mao: The Unknown Story ~ Jung Chang, Jon Halliday.

The 40m monument Renmin Yinxiong Jinian Bei which was completed in 1958, (Monument to the People’s Heroes) sits in the middle of Tiananmen Square. Which was made to respect the Chinese who died in the struggle to make China an independent nation before the Communists came to govern, it has also acted as a lightning rod for opposition. After the Falungong demonstrations, it was cordoned off from the public.

At the base of this monument are eight 2m tall panels depicting influential events in the Communist interpretation of Chinese history between 1839 and 1949 which are amusing to say the least!

Tiananmen Square, Beijing – Travel Photos

Hong Kong sits at the south eastern tip of China adjoining the province of Canton also known as Guangdong. Hong Kong is about 1080 km², comprising of Hong Kong Island Kowloon and the New Territories, including 235 smaller islands.

The primary tourist area in Hong Kong is Kowloon, here you can find almost an unlimited amount of electronics shops nestled between clubs, bars and restaurants. Some backpackers/travellers may find this area to be a little tacky, however I found it to be a very good opportunity to get orientated in more familiar surroundings.

There are some sights worth seeing such as Victoria Peak which rises 552m above sea level. This was also my very first trip on a funicular railway, to the top of Victoria Peak which offers excellent views over Hong Kong. There is also a Madame Tussauds wax works and the most cheesiest simulator ride in the world.

I remember a large night market which was on Temple Street which is worth a visit to. Unfortunately as with most markets it has fallen victim to the tourist trade but is still worth a look. There are Zoological & Botanic gardens somewhere near here too, or why not chill out at the beach at Repulse Bay

Also near here is the Hong Kong Space museum featuring an OMNIMAX projector. There was also a Museum of History and of course the Hong Kong Cultural centre which I never went to.

Hong Kong island was even busier than the mainland of Hong Kong. Most backpackers and tourists I met come to see the ships anchored off the port. There are many boat tours in Aberdeen which are very expensive but worth it. Try not to indulge in a meal on one of the tour boats as there are many floating restaurants here. Other attractions include the Central Market and the ancient Man Mo Temple.

Hong Kong, China – Travel Photos

A popular travel trek along the Great Wall of China is from Janshanlang to Simatai, its about six miles and is quite a walk to the top! The views over Simatai are spectacularly awesome, and of course you don’t have to walk the entire way back down, you can ride a flying fox to the bottom

The stretch is within a days travel from Beijing. It is around 80 miles north east of Beijing, and due to this there are not enormous crowds of tourists and backpackers. The natural damage to this part of the wall helps proclaim its authenticity earning it the reputation of being the most beautiful stretch of the Great Wall. So if your off travelling to China, make sure you pay Simatai a visit!

The Great Wall of China, Simatai – Travel Photos