Seeing the Sights! A Look At History That Goes Back Thousands of Years.
Over the course of my eight week stay here in Beijing I have had the opportunity to visit many places of significant historical value. Almost all of these places are UNESCO World Heritage Sites which further proves their importance to understanding the expansive history of China. In this blog post I will be showing some pictures from these amazingly beautiful sites and giving a brief description of my experience there.
The Museum of China
The Museum of China was the first place I visited while in Beijing. This museum is huge and the amount of ancient artifacts stored inside are incredible. There are some relics dating as far back in history as the Xia Dynasty(2100–1600BC). I found it quite fascinating to see how the technological and political advancement of China progressed throughout the centuries. It took about two and a half hours to explore the entire museum.
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen square is a gigantic city square located at the very center of Beijing.
The Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is by far one of the coolest things I have seen in Beijing. It’s just north of
Tiananmen Square and where many emperors resided. The intricacy of the architecture was simply beautiful and really showcased how much time was put into making sure the structure was something to marvel at. It took us about four hours to walk through the entire complex.
The Summer Palace
The Summer Palace is the place where emperors used to go to cool off during the hot summer months. The Summer Palace and the Forbidden City are alike in their architecture and time it takes to complete a walk-through. However, they differ in their layout and views of the surrounding terrain. While here we paddle boated on the Kunming Lake. It took us about 3 and half hours to see it all.
The Great Wall of China
This is the one I had been waiting for, for weeks! Like a lot of the other ancient Chinese structures, the Great Wall is HUGE. It was a hike that included some major inclines and declines, some without stairs. At the higher points of the wall the view was stunning. You could see rock jutting out of the dense layer of trees and the wall snaking across the mountain. This endeavor took us around three hours.
All of these historical sites came with fatigued legs and buckets of sweat, but the views and knowledge they afforded me were well worth it.
