Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SIGHTS
TEMPLE OF HEAVEN PARK
|PARK
BĚIJĪNG NATURAL
HISTORY MUSEUM
( Běijīng Zìrán Bówùguǎn; 6702 7702; 126 Tianqiao Nandajie; admission ¥10; 9am-5pm Tue-Sun, last entry
4pm; Qianmen or Tiantandongmen)
The main entrance to this overblown, creeper-laden museum
is hung with portraits of the great natural historians, including Darwin and Linnaeus. The
contents range from dinosaur fossils and skeletons, including a
Mamenchisaurus jingyan-
ensis
(a vast sauropod that once roamed China) to creepy-crawlies, an aquarium with
Nemo-esque clown fish and an exhibition on the origins of life on earth.
|MUSEUM
MING CITY WALL RUINS PARK
( Míng Chéngqiáng Yízhǐ Gōngyuán; Chongwenmen Dongdajie; 24hr; Chongwenmen)
The city wall, lev-
elled in the 1950s to facilitate transport and blot out the grandeur of earlier dynasties, is
perhaps Běijīng's most conspicuous chunk of lost heritage. As modern-day Nánjīng in
Jiāngsū province proves, modern Chinese cities can still grow without having to rip their
city walls down. This last slice of the Ming Inner City Wall (originally 40km in length) has
been restored and runs along the length of the northern flank of Chongwenmen Dongdajie,
attached to a slender strip of park.
|CITY WALLS
The wall stretches from the former site of
Chóngwén Mén
(Chóngwén Gate), one of the
nine gates of the Inner City Wall, to the Southeast Corner Watchtower and then turns north
for a short distance along Jianguomen Nandajie to Beijingzhan Dongjie. Chóngwén Mén
was also called Shuì Mén ( Tax Gate) as the capital tax bureau lay just outside the gate.
You can walk the park's length, taking in its higgledy-piggledy contours and the interior
layers of stone in parts of the wall that have collapsed. The restored sections run for just
over 2km, rising to a height of around 15m and interrupted every 80m with buttresses ex-
tending to a maximum depth of 39m. The most interesting sections of wall are those closer
to their original and more dilapidated state and some of the bricks come complete with bul-
let holes.
SOUTHEAST CORNER
WATCHTOWER & RED GATE GALLERY
( Dōngnán Jiǎolóu & Hóngmén Huàláng; 6527 0574; adult ¥10; 8am-5.30pm; Jianguomen or Chongwen-
men)
This splendid fortification, with a green-tiled, twin-eaved roof rising up imperiously
|WATCHTOWER, GALLERY
