|
|
|
TOUR PROGRAM LOCAL TOURS LT1 Hutong Tour - Beihai Park LT2 Forbidden City - Temple of Heaven LT3 Lamasery - Summer Palace LT4 Ming Tombs - Great Wall at Juyongguan Notes on Local Tours:
POST-CONFERENCE TOURS PT-1 Beijing - Xi'an - Beijing Oct. 23 (Thu.) Morning flight to Xi'an. Visit Wild Goose Pagoda and Sha'anxi History Museum. Check in at a four-star hotel. Oct. 24 (Fri.) Visit the Terracotta Horses and Warriors and the Forest of Stone Tablets Oct. 25 (Sat.) Morning flight back to Beijing. Tour ends at Beijing Airport. PT-2 Beijing - Xi'an - Guilin - Beijing Oct. 23 (Thu.) Morning flight to Xi'an. Visit Wild Goose Pagoda and Sha'anxi History Museum. Check in at a four-star hotel. Oct. 24 (Fri.) Visit the Terracotta Horses and Warriors and the Forest of Stone Tablets Oct. 25 (Sat.) Morning flight to Guilin. Guided tour to Reed Flute Cave. Check in at a four-star hotel. Oct. 26 (Sun.) One-day trip on Li River cruise and visit the Elephant Trunk Hill. Oct. 27 (Mon.) Morning flight back to Beijing. Tour ends at Beijing Airport. Notes on Post-Conference Tours:
SITES OF INTEREST
Besides the numerous famous historical sites and cultural heritage worth visiting in the daytime in Beijing, the Acrobatic Show, Peking Opera, Gongfu Show, music concerts including traditional Chinese performance and Western opera etc. are optional to all visitors in the evening. many of other famous places in other cities are also worthing visiting, such as the terra-cotta warriors in Xi'an. FORBIDEN CITY (PALACE MUSEUM)
THE GREAT WALL
TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
MUSEUM OF TERRA-COTTA WARRIORS AND HORSES AND BIG WILD GOOSE POGODA IN XI'AN
|
|
COPYRIGHT © 2007-2008, CICCST ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |
The venerated Chinese history has strewn the land of Beijing with sites of cultural and historical interest. Some of them, such as the Great Wall, Former imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, and the ruins of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian, are UNESCO-endorsed world cultural heritage sites. Imperial palaces, mansions, gardens and tombs are epitomes of classical Chinese architecture. Among the massive number of ancient buildings that have remained to this day are quite a few Buddhist monasteries, Taoist temples and Catholic churches, such as Yonghegong Lamasery and Big Bell Temple. There are 120 museums worth seeing, including Museum of Chinese History and China Art Gallery. Over 100 gardens are open to the public. As behooves an international metropolis, Beijing's skyline looks splendid with a jungle of tall buildings in varied and distinct styles. Chinese Ethnic Culture Park and Central TV Tower are among Beijing's recent crop of landmarks. You will not be disappointed if you have time to spare for a visit to the suburbs, where the scenery holds forth the fascination of sequestered repose and unperturbed serenity. What is more, the 29th Olympic Games will be held in Beijing in 2008, and many new sports facilites are being built.
A Tang Dynasty poet wrote a line about the royal palace of his time, which reads: Without seeing the magnificence of the royal palace, one can never sense the dignity of the emperor. Magnificent and awe-inspiring, that is how every visitor would describe the Forbidden City, which served as the seat of imperial power during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911).The Forbidden City, now called Palace Museum, is located Rafael V. C. Guido-meter city is the largest palatial complex in the world. It is surrounded by a moat, which is 52 meters wide and six meters deep, and by a wall, which is three kilometers long and 10 meters high. On the wall are four gates with towers above them: Wumen in the south, Shenwumen in the north, Donghuamen in the east and Xihuamen in the west. On the four corners of the wall stand four turret towers, each with three roofs and 72 roof ridges. They are masterpieces of ancient Chinese architecture.
To the northwest and north of Beijing, a huge, serrated wall zigzag, it's way to the east and west along the undulating mountains. This is the Great Wall, which is said to be visible from the moon. It is the great creation of ancient Chinese people, listed by the United Nation's Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as one of the World heritages. Construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century B.C. The vassal states under the Zhou Dynasty in the northern parts of the country each built their own walls for defense purposes. After the state of Qin unified China in 221 B.C., it joined the walls to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north and extended them to more than 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. This is the origin of the name of the "10,000-li Great Wall".
About 2km southeast of the Forbidden City towers Tian Tan, or the Temple of Heaven, where dynastic rulers in China used to worship the heaven. The temple plus subsidiary buildings and a surrounding garden covers an area five times the size of the Forbidden City. As Chinese emperors called themselves Tianzi, or the son of heaven, they had to cede supremacy to the heaven in terms of abiding. Chinese emperors had many other gods to worship apart from the god of heaven, including the gods of earth, water and war. They also worshipped their ancestors. As a result, religious activities were an important part of their busy work schedule. Temples of various kinds are scattered in Beijing. The best-known are the Temple of Heaven in the south, the Temple of Earth in the north, the Temple of Sun in the east, and the Temple of the Moon in the west. The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of them all.
Xi'an ranks first among the seven ancient capitals of China. Since 1100 B.C., 12 dynasties successively made Xi'an their capital. Xi'an is also the beginning of the world-famous ancient silk route. Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Warriors and Horses made more than 2,000 years ago and numbered in several thousand were designated as one the cultural heritages of the world and regarded as the 8th great Wonders in the World. The Dayan (Big Wild Goose) Pagoda was built in 648 A.D. and is a typical ancient storied building. Mounting the grand Dayan Tower, looking into the distance while leaning on the handrail, you can see the whole ancient city of too many beautiful things, which makes you relaxed, happy and reluctant to leave.