Driving Downtown Beijing | China’s Modern, Ancient and Vast Capital | 北京
Beijing, China’s sprawling capital, has history stretching back 3 millennia. Yet it’s known as much for modern architecture as its ancient sites such as the grand Forbidden City complex, the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Nearby, the massive Tiananmen Square pedestrian plaza is the site of Mao Zedong’s mausoleum and the National Museum of China, displaying a vast collection of cultural relics.
What is Beijing most known for? The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. It has seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, Zhoukoudian, and parts of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal—all of which are popular tourist locations. Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 21.89M as of 2021. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's largest state-owned companies.
The metropolis, located in northern China, borders Hebei Province to the north, west, south, and a small section to the east, and Tianjin Municipality to the southeast. Governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the national government, Beijing is divided into 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and motorways passing through the city, and the destination of many international flights to China. As the capital of the People's Republic of China, Beijing is located in northern China, close to Tianjin Municipality and partially surrounded by Hebei Province.
The city covers an area of more than 16,410 square kilometers (6336 square miles) and has a population of 21.89 million people. Beijing is a city with four distinct seasons. Its best is late spring and autumn. But autumn is taken as the golden tourist season of the year since there is sometimes in the spring of recent years, a yellow wind. We suggest tourists visit Beijing during the months of May, September, and October when people can enjoy bright sunshine and blue skies. An abundance of international class performances are presented in May. If you like winter, you will have other chances to appreciate another landscape of Beijing.
After skiing in Beihai and viewing the snowy sights on West Hill, enjoying the steaming hotpot is the best choice, which is really the fun of tour in Beijing. Please keep warm and remember to bring your down garments and sweaters when you visit Beijing in the winter. How can one city boast so many phenomenal places? Beijing's long and illustrious history started some 500,000 years ago. It is here that the ancestors of modern Homo sapiens, Peking men, lived in caves. Records show that Beijing has been an inhabited city for more than three thousand years and has endured invasions by warlords and foreign powers, devastating fires, the rise and fall of powerful imperial dynasties and has emerged each time as a strong and vibrant city.
For more than 800 years, Beijing was a capital city - from the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368) to the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1911) dynasties. Thirty-four emperors have lived and ruled the nation in Beijing and it has been an important trading city from its earliest days. Few cities in the world have served as long as the political and cultural centre of an area as immense. Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. It has been the heart of China’s history for centuries, and there is scarcely a major building of any age in Beijing that does not have at least some national historical significance.
The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have long made it a centre of culture and art in China. Chang'an Avenue Chang'an Avenue (Chang an Jie), literally "the Street of Eternal Peace", was built together with the Forbidden City during the years from 1406 to 1420 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was named after Chang'an (today's Xi'an in Shaanxi Province), a metropolis in the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
As an axis of Beijing in the east-west direction, Chang'an Avenue in a narrow sense stretches from Dongdan to Xidan. In the past, it was referred to as the Shili Changjie, which means a long street of ten li (approximately 3.1 miles). However, in a broader sense, it runs from Tongzhou District to Shijingshan District, with an overall length of 28.6 miles (46 kilometers). The width of this street ranges from 197 to 394 feet (60 to 120 meters). Being one of the most important streets in China, Chang'an Avenue was once regarded as the longest and widest street all over the world.
Having been expanded for several times, the avenue today takes on a more magnificent look. With numerous soaring skyscrapers and splendid decorative lightings, the night view of the street is a must see for all visitors. Located along this avenue are a large number of historic sites as well as critical political buildings. The symbols of China, Tiananmen Tower and Tiananmen Square, stand opposite to each other on the midpoint of Chang'an Avenue, dividing the avenue into the West Chang'an Street and East Chang'an Street.
Not far from Tiananmen Tower are the Great Hall of the People, Zhongnanhai, the Ministry of Public Security, and other agencies of the central government. Famous cultural facilities, such as the National Museum of China, the Forbidden City, Zhongshan Park, Working Peoples's Cultural Palace, National Center for the Performing Arts, and Beijing Concert Hall, are dotted on both sides of the avenue. Beijing's major commercial streets, like Wangfujing, Xidan, and Dongdan, are scattered along Chang'an Avenue.
In addition, Beijing Railway Station and West Railway Station are situated near this street, making it easily accessible.
2022-03-08 03:17
