Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
West. It is well-known that in the fi fteenth century, Christopher Columbus himself
hadn't made up his mind to make a voyage to China until he read “Marco Polo's
Travelling Notes”. Columbus believed that the earth was round, and thought that
he would certainly reach China by sailing westward in a ship, since Marco Polo
could succeed in getting to China through going eastward by land. Of course he
failed to get to China. But the determination of this brave and talented man led to an
unexpected discovery—the discovery of the New Continent.
1.2.4
Part Four: The City of Beijing in Ming and Qing
Dynasties: A Remark-able Example of the Imperial
Capitals for Its Excellent Planning and Designing
The domination of Yuan Dynasty lasted less than 100 years only. It was replaced by
Ming Dynasty founded by the Han Nationality. The Ming rulers rose up in the lower
reaches of the Yangzi River and made Nanjing their fi rst capital. Then they began
their northern expedition. In 1368 they captured the city of Dadu, and changed its
name into Peiping (North Pacifi cation). When the third emperor of Ming Dynasty
came to the throne, he decided to move his capital northward to Beijing (North
Capital). This is the fi rst time to use the name of Beijing. At this time a large-scale
reconstruction of the city was carried out. In 1420 the rebuilding of the city was
basically completed.
When the Ming troops fi rst conquered Dadu City, they leveled down the Yuan
imperial palaces to the ground. For the sake of defence, they built up a new bulwark
on the bottle-neck of the Water Storing Pond, which was positioned 2.5 km inside
the original northern city wall.
The reconstruction work consisted of the following items:
1. The imperial city was rebuilt, with the original central axis as the central line.
The new imperial city moved a bit southward, which was later called the Purple
Forbidden City (which is now well-preserved and opened up as the Palace
Museum). In the Forbidden City, the six great halls symbolic of the imperial
power ranged from south to north on the central axis of the whole city. The
other buildings were as usual arranged on either side of the six great halls in
strict symmetry.
2. With the southward moving of the imperial city, the south wall of the imperial
city and the south wall of the city of Beijing proper were also moved southward.
And as a result, the imperial city and the big city got larger space each. A new
Imperial Ancestral Temple and a new Altar of Land and Grain were respectively
put up in the increased space on the two sides of the central trunk line in front of
the Forbidden City. The two groups of buildings which were erected in keeping
with the old tradition, were more closely connected with the imperial city. With
these two groups of new buildings, the position of the central trunk line became
more conspicuous from the viewpoint of the plane arrangement.
