Visiting Beijing with the kids
When you’re planning travel expeditions for your family, it’s great if you can combine some exciting discoveries and new experiences along with a bit of education and information.
Education doesn’t always have to studying books or writing essays, the best type of learning comes from seeing or experiencing something first hand and asking lots of questions.
One of the best destinations in the world for some educational travel is the city of Beijing in China.
It’s estimated that by the year 2025 China will have 221 cities with over one million inhabitants and an urban population of one billion. A lot of that urban population are going to be living in the capital city Beijing — there’s already over 21 million people living there, making it one of the biggest cities in the world. But Beijing is a surprisingly easy city to explore as a visitor and the history of this part of the world is fascinating and surrounds you at ever turn.
In this article we take a look at some of the key attractions for your visit to Beijing.
The Forbidden City
A good place to start your history lesson is the Forbidden City — the imperial palace of the rulers of China from the Ming dynasty (1420) through to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912 (a period of about 500 years). Twenty-four successive emperors ruled China from this palace which was the political and cultural centre of the region.
The palace was built in 1406 and it is a huge complex of 980 buildings stretching over 72 hectares. It took more than a million workers a period of 14 years to build this palace complex.
It is known as the Forbidden City because as it was the residence of the Emperor, no one could enter or leave the palace without the Emperor’s permission.
There’s an incredible amount of detail through this complex of buildings and gardens, and you can easily spend a day exploring.
Tiananmen Square
The enormous square is named after the Tiananmen gate which separates it from the Forbidden City. The gate was built in 1415 but the square wasn’t created until 1651. It was dramatically increased in the 1950s — Mao Zedong wanted a square that could hold over 500,000 people.
Tiananmen Square has been the site of a number of major events throughout its history — protests in 1919, the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, protests in 1976, and the enormous pro-democracy protests of 1989 which resulted in a brutal crackdown by the Chinese authorities.
The sheer size and expanse of the square is awe-inspiring and well worth visiting.
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall is an easy day trip from Beijing and it is a fascinating glimpse into the engineering ingenuity and the ancient struggles of this part of Asia.
The Great Wall began as a series of separate walls and fortifications that were begun in the 7th century BC, defending the northern border of China against attacks from nomadic tribes. Over time the different walls were expanded and improved until they were connected together to form the Great Wall that we know today.
Much of what we see dates from the Ming Dynasty and it includes watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, and signalling points.
The wall is surprisingly wide and one of the main reasons for this is that it was also used by troops and horses to travel between defensive points.
Get your kids excited about history and culture and start planning your family’s expedition to Beijing.
