Beijing is a city strongly featured by its types of architecture, both of modern building and classical building. As a famous ancient cultural city, Beijing is famous for its ancient architecture including the imperial palace, courtyards and Hutong.
Meanwhile, as the development and modernization of the national capital, many modern and fashionable buildings are also built in Beijing. Challenging the traditional aesthetical standard strongly, most of these architectures are the masterpieces of internationally famous architects and designers. These new-fashioned buildings in Beijing include: the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, the Water Cube, and National Grand Theatre etc. Beijing shows its vitality and maturity via its architectural diversity. See:
>> Classical Building
>> Modern Architecture
Top 5 Historical Attractions in Beijing
NO.1 Great Wall
As one of the most attracting sights in the world, the Great Wall of China is also well known in China, which is called the Great Wall of 10000. It is built from the end of the 14th century until the beginning of the 17th century, during the Ming Dynasty to defend the foreign aggression, including the aggression of the Mongols and Turkic tribes. It is a paved freeway winding across the hills for more than 3,000 mi/4830 km. The wall is so wide the carts and horseman can travel along. It is both a barrier to defend the invaders from the north and a dividing line that separates the settled agriculture on the plain and nomadic life in the mountains. Except for the brick and stone, the Great Wall also contains the bodies of the conscripted labors. So it is a miracle, but people may feel a little sad talking about it besides feeling proud.
NO.2 Forbidden City
The Forbidden City is also known as the Palace Museum. There are twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties lived there in history. It is called The Forbidden City because it is the biggest and best-preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China which limits the ordinary citizens. It was first built in the 14th century, but it has been rebuilt several times because of fires and other catastrophes.
It is located at1 kilometer north of the Tian'anmen Square. Its south gate, which is also called the Gate of Devine Might (Shenwumen), faced the Jingshan Park. It is 960 meters long and 750 meters wide, and is the world largest palace complex covers a floor space of 720,000 square meters, having 9,999 buildings. The rectangular city is encircled in a 52-meter-wide, 6-meter-deep moat and a 10-meter-high, 3,400-meter-long city wall which has one gate on each side. Inside and outside on the four corners, there are four unique and delicate structured corner towers where you can overlook the city. Each of the four sides is inserted a gate. On the south is the Meridian Gate (Wu men) and on the north is the Gate of Spiritual Valor (Shenwu men) , and they are used as the entrance and exit by tourists today.
NO.3 Tiananmen Square
Located in the heart of Beijing, the Tiananmen Square is known as the biggest public square in the world. The square occupies a total area of 440,000 square meters, and is big enough to hold half a million people. The square has witnessed the Chinese people's struggle against foreign aggression and reactionary rule at home. In 1949, Chairman Mao announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China, which is seen as a great affair of our country. For over a hundred years, many ceremony and demonstrations have been held here since the built of The Republic of China. The major attracting sites around the Tiananmen Square include the white marble Jinshuiqiao (Gold Water Bridges), Tiananmen Gate (Heavenly Peace Gate), the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, the Qianmen gate and Great Hall of the People.
NO.4 Summer Palace
As one of the largest and best-preserved imperial gardens in China, The Summer Palace has the best of ancient buildings as well as styles of gardening. It is a virtual museum of traditional Chinese gardening. During the summer time, it is wise for you to choose The Summer Palace for vacationing emperors and Dowager Empresses. It was badly damaged by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War (1860), and the restoration of it is considered as important affair by the Empress Dowager Cixi, last Qing dynasty rulers. The palace occupies a total area of 290 hectares, three quarters of which is made up of shallow lakes.
NO.5 Ming Tombs
Ming Tombs consist of mausoleums of 13 Ming emperors. So it is also called Thirteen Ming Tombs. It is located on the southern side of the Tianshou Mountain in Changping County about 50 Kilometers north of Beijing. Among the 13 mausoleums, the most famous ones are the Changling and Dingling. Construction of the first tomb, Changling, was started in 1409 and completed in 1427. The whole construction of the 13 Ming Tombs took more than 200 years. A Sacred Way stretches 7 Kilometers from south to north through the center of the site. Ming Tombs cover 40 square kilometers. Each tomb was built alongside a mountain, and a river runs through the whole area. They are the best-preserved part of all Chinese imperial tombs.
Modern Architecture in Beijing Top
Bird’s Nest
Bird’s nest is the main stadium of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Generally, governmental officials formally call it National Stadium in the press conference, but the public universally call it bird nest for its similarity to a bird’s nest in shape. The super-sized stadium is a cooperative work designed by Chinese architect Li Xinggang as well as Herzog and Demei Long, who were2001 Pritzker Prize winner. The idea of bird’s nest shape symbolizes the cradle of human and the hope of human’s future.
Official Website: http://www.n-s.cn/en/
Water Cube
The National Aquatics Center, also known as Water Cube, was built before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as the main venue for the swimming competition. It is also a landmark project in the 2008 Olympics. The design of the Water Cube was derived from the victorious proposal in the international architectural competition for the aquatics center project. It started on December 24th 2003 and completed on January 28th 2008.
Official Website: http://www.water-cube.com/en/
CCTV Headquarters
China Central Television Headquarters or CCTV Headquarters is listed in top-10 world architectural wonders which were published by Time Weekly of U.S.A in 2007. Located in the east side of central business district, Downtown, the renowned CCTV Headquarter is designed by Rem Koolhaas from Holland. This trapezia–style building then becomes the most radical architecture in design in the world. It is equally famous with other two new architectures: Beijing Modern Universal Town and Beijing Olympic Stadium, which are also ranked into the top-ten world architectural wonders in 2007.
National Grand Theatre
National Grand Theatre lies in the heart zone of Beijing, along with the West Changan Avenue, and neighboring to the Great Hall of People and Tiananmen Square. It covers an area of 118,900 square meters, with a total construction area of 217,500 square meters. The Centre of National Grand Theatre is featured by the unique shell shape with 46.68 meters high and 32.50 meters deep in the underground, and the girth is more than 600 meters. Shell surface is skillfully covered with 18,398 titanium plates and more than 1,226 pieces of white glass to create visual effect that stage curtain is slowly being opened. The surrounding coverage of shell is up to 35,500 square meters and it is constituted of an artificial lake and a leisure cultural plaza rounded by a large amount of green trees to beautify the outer landscape of the National Grand Theatre.
Official Website: http://www.chncpa.org/
798 Art District
“798” Beijing Dashanzi Art District is located in Dashanzi, northeast side of Beijing. The current location of “798” Art District is the original site of some old state-owned factories. Since 2002, a group of artists and cultural institutions came in the district and greatly reconstructed the free or deserted workshops. Gradually, these workshops turned into featured galleries, art centers, artist studios, design companies, dining rooms and bars. Diversities of arts and services form the “Loft” lifestyle and “Soho”-style art gathering with the internationalized feature. Recently it has given rise to a considerable degree of concern. “798”has become a cultural concept in the process of the integration among modern art, architectural space, cultural industry, historical relics and urban life environment.
Official Website: http://www.798art.org/
