Beijing World Heritage
Of the 48 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China, seven are in Beijing. They include the obvious like the Forbidden City and Great Wall, but they also include the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, Peking Man Site, and part of the Grand Canal. Almost all of these are part of a larger inscription with other locations of the same site in different parts of China. Almost all are on every visitor’s itinerary for Beijing and are readily accessible. With my mom, I made it to four of Beijing’s World Heritage destinations.
The Summer Palace
One of the first places I took my mom was the Summer Palace. This UNESCO World Heritage Site was spectacular as always. I really enjoyed sharing this place with my mom since I know more about it with my last visits being as a tour guide.
I have never experienced the palace in spring either, so that was a nice change. The trees were blooming in white and pink adding a great atmosphere and details to the already stunning architecture.
The Forbidden City
Unfortunately, the day we went to the Forbidden City or Palace Museum was the smoggiest of my mom’s trip. The Beijing haze makes the palace a bit ethereal adding to the surrealism. I made sure my mom had the full Forbidden City experience by letting her push her way to the front of the mob to see a throne. She was a pro! She knew how to shove and dodge and raise that camera up to grab the shot. I think I know where I got it from.
We also visited the outstanding collections of clocks. It is found in one of the side buildings with an added admission fee. The ticket office is just outside the entrance court to this gallery. I’d recommend the added fee since the collection of timepieces is spectacular. It ranges from the traditional Chinese incense and water clocks to European gifts ornately carved and decorated with precious stones and metals to the later masterpieces from Chinese artists.
Many of them had intricate moving parts in addition to the clock works. There are dancing things, flying birds, blooming flowers, and more. It is quite the impressive collection. There are even a couple of automatons in the collection that write in Chinese calligraphy.
The Great Wall – Mutianyu
The Great Wall of China is magnificent no matter what the conditions are when you visit. My first time was in smog and haze shrouded mountains with visibility limited to a few hundred yards. This time with my mom it was spectacularly clean with visibility being the horizon. We could even see the central business district of Beijing in the distance, CCTV pants and all.
We went to the same section I had been to before, Mutianyu, but it has changed a lot in five years. There is a grand, new visitor center and tourist village and a shuttle bus to get to the wall. There is also now a gondola to get to a part of the wall instead of just the steps and the chairlift. We opted for that way of ascension having walked probably more than 100,000 steps over the previous five days.
This took us up to one of the bastions. From there we could see the wall extending over rocky peaks and ridges in both directions for miles. We went down a bit before riding the gondola back.
Again, with spring, there were lovely blossoms all around. China is just spectacular in spring in case you didn’t know. I hope my next visit to the wall will be a different section, but if it has to be Mutianyu due to logistics like this time, I’ll take it.
Temple of Heaven
Another iconic Beijing destination is the Temple of Heaven. It is seen in all Beijing tourism imagery because it is different from almost any other big famous Chinese structure you’ll see. This ancient altar was great to explore again. This time I also had my camera, so I didn’t miss out on pics including those of the many brides and couples getting their portraits at the site.
One place we visited that I hadn’t before was the fasting palace in the park. This was where the emperor went before the official ceremonies at the temple. He would be at the fasting palace for a designated time to fast from basically all indulgences including women, alcohol, and fine foods.
It is a simple rectangular complex similar to numerous other traditional Chinese compounds and temples. However, it has two moats and the central hall has many vaulted or beamless halls, which are pretty impressive. A visit to this palace is part of the through ticket for the Temple of Heaven, but they’ll insist on seeing a passport when you get your entrance ticket at the building. I don’t know why, but maybe they think if you’re willing to walk to that edge of the park for the building you won’t mind jumping one more hurdle to get in.
Beijing is rich with history and culture. These are just four of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Beijing. Someday I’ll make it back out to the Ming Tombs and down to the Peking Man site. Unfortunately, the latter is very difficult to get to. And, although the Grand Canal is on the list, I’ll really focus on that when I make it to Hangzhou. I love sitting in my current office and looking out at the city. I can see the roofs of the Forbidden City in the distance and the Bell and Drum Towers with the modern skyscrapers behind. This is an amazing city that everyone should visit at some point in their life. I’m glad I could share it with my mom and can’t wait to share it with the rest of my family.
