Cultural Beijing: The Summer Palace, Lama temple, Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City
Forbidden city
Forbidden city
Beijing is built around the Forbidden City so the palace is the heart of the city. The Forbidden city looks small in a map until you look at the scale. It’s huge, as big as a small town by itself. It was the place where Chinese emperors lived their entire life because they were not allowed to leave the palace. The day we chose to visit the forbidden city was the same day chosen to do the same by half a million Chinese people. The internal tourism on this country is starting to wake up!
I didn’t really liked it because it was more of the same thing. Korea has a huge Chinese influence and the architecture, colors and paintings of the Forbidden City look exactly the same as temples and imperial palaces in Korea. I guess I’m saturated of Chinese architecture as much as of European palaces and temples! Overwhelmed by the huge amount of Chinese tourists and bored of the unexciting buildings, we rushed through the city and went to eat an (amazing) Peking duck.
Summer Palace
Lama Temple
The summer palace was a better experience because it was not crowded and it is plain beautiful. The Forbidden City is full of buildings that look all the same, but the Summer Palace is like a huge park. It has an enormous lake with a small island you can reach via a bridge.
Lama Temple
Lama Temple
Lama Temple is the biggest Tibetan temple out of Tibet and one of the most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple combine Chinese and Tibetan styles.
Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven is the biggest religious temple on Asia and completely different to other Chinese temples. Chinese urbanism and architecture is based on the square form but this temple is circular and it vaguely resemble the circular peaks of russian churches. It’s located in a grand park with surprisingly green grass. The most interesting highlight of this spot apart of the circular temple were the old locals who where chilling out and hunging around the park, spending their time playing cards, dancing and singing.
