Urban Impression

[Billy]

Round heaven

[Billy]

The Hall of Annual Prayer (祈年殿), a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, built on three levels of marble stone base, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests.

Whole view of Qiniandian
Qinianmen (Gate of Qinian)

[Billy]

In ancient China, the Emperor of China was regarded as the "Son of Heaven", who administered earthly matters on behalf of, and representing, heavenly authority. To be seen to be showing respect to the source of his authority, in the form of sacrifices to heaven, was extremely important. The temple was built for these ceremonies, mostly comprised of prayers for good harvests.

Each winter solstice the Emperor and all his retinue would move through the city to encamp within the complex, wearing special robes and abstaining from eating meat; there the Emperor would personally pray to Heaven for good harvests. The ceremony had to be perfectly completed; it was widely held that the smallest of mistakes would constitute a bad omen for the whole nation in the coming year.

Inside the Hall of Annual Prayer.The Temple of Heaven is the grandest of the four great temples located in Beijing. The other prominent temples include the Temple of Sun in the east (日坛), the Temple of Earth in the north (地坛), and the Temple of Moon in the west (月坛).

According to Xinhua, in early 2005, the Temple of Heaven underwent a 47 million yuan (5.9 million USD) face-lift in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and the restoration was completed on May 1st, 2006.

The Temple of Heaven was registered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.

[Billy]

The Temple is surrounded by two cordons of walls; the outer wall has a taller, semi-circular northern end, representing Heaven, and a shorter, rectangular southern end, representing the Earth.
All the buildings within the Temple have special dark blue roof tiles, again representing the Heaven.
The Altar of Heaven was constructed with details representing the number nine, the representative number of the Emperor.
If you stand at the centre of the platform and clap your hands, you can hear the echo because of the concavity of the surrounding wall.
The House of Heavenly Lord is surrounded by a curved wall, 6 metres tall and 32.5 metres in radius. It is nicknamed the 'Echo Wall' because a person at one end of the wall can hear the voice of a person at the other end of the wall.
The Hall of Annual Prayer is 32 metres in diameter and 38 metres tall. It has four inner, twelve middle and twelve outer pillars, representing the four seasons, twelve months and twelve traditional Chinese hours respectively.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was built without a single nail.
Some Chinese Christians consider the Temple of Heaven as a tribute to the Christian God, believing that the belief in Heaven to be an unarticulated reverence for the true God.

[Billy]

The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven (Traditional Chinese: 天壇, Simplified Chinese: 天坛; pinyin: Tiāntán; Manchu: Abkai mukdehun) is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. Construction of the complex began in 1420, and was thereafter visited by all subsequent Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although the worship of Heaven, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

The Temple grounds covers 2.73 km² of parkland, and comprises three main groups of constructions, all built according to strict philosophical requirements:

[xoxoxoBruce]

Thanks Billy, is all that color just done with paint on wood?

[Undertoad]

Thank you Billy, so much amazing detail work! So many colors!

[skysidhe]

The Temple of Heaven is outstanding!!


As for my submission, I know weve seen these before but everytime I see them I marvel. Some of these look so 3 dimentional to be real when really they are only street drawings.
http://www.thepuzzlefactory.com/2006_chalk.cfm

[Billy]

The Summer Palace, one of the finest examples garden architecture in China, is located in the northwest suburbs of Beijing. The 100-odd examples of traditional architecture in the park include pavilions, terraces, temples, pagodas, waterside gazebos, covered corridors, stone bridges and the famous marble boat. The palace occupies a total area of 290 hectares, three quarters of which is made up of shallow lakes.

Suzhou Jie (Suzhou street)

[Billy]

The history of the Summer Palace dates back some 800 years when the first emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Wan Yanliang, moved his capital to the vicinity of Beijing and built his "God Mountain Palace" at the present site of Longevity Hill. A subsequent emperor of the same dynasty diverted the water from the nearby Jade Spring to the Gold Mountain, naming the lake it flowed into the Gold Sea. After the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, Gold Mountain was renamed Jug Mountain (Wengshan), as explained in the following legend: There was once an itinerant old man who discovered a large rock on the slope of Gold Mountain. Breaking it open, he found an earthenware jar hidden inside. The jar's surface was exquisitely carved with flowers, animals and dragons. Inside the jar were many objects of great value which the old man took away with him. Before his departure, however, he brought the jar to the sunny side of the mountain and inscribed it with the following couplet: "When this earthen jar is moved, the emperor's decline shall begin." During the Jiajing period (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty, the jar disappeared and, just as the old man predicted, the dynasty fell into decay.

Before the people of palace run business on the street, made by the style of Suzhou architecture.

[Billy]

In 1292, Guo Shoujing, a Yuan official in charge of irrigation work, suggested digging a riverbed leading all the springs in the vicinity of Jug Mountain to facilitate grain transport. Spring water from Changping, 50 kilometers north of Beijing, was thus led to the foot of Jug Mountain, and the lake was enlarged and renamed Jug Mountain Lake.

[Billy]

The names of the lake and the park and how they have changed over the course of their long history would make a study in itself. In the Yuan Dynasty, Kunming Lake was known as the Big Lake, the West Sea or the West Lake. Visiting West Lake in April was already a popular custom among the people in this period. In the Ming Dynasty a temple was built on the south side of Longevity Hill.

[Billy]

Emperor Zhengde of the Ming (reigned 1506-1521) built a palace on the bank of the lake and called it the Fine Garden for Enjoying Mountains (Haoshanyuan). He also changed Jug Mountain's name back to Gold Mountain and Jug Mountain Lake to Gold Sea. In the early 17th century, the infamous eunuch Zhongxian took over the entire garden for his private use.

[Billy]

When Qing troops occupied Beijing in the middle of the 17th century, the Fine Garden for Enjoying Mountains was renamed Jug Mountain Palace. It was during the reign of Qianlong (1736-1796) that the names of the last time. In commemoration of the 60th birthday of Qianlong's mother, the emperor erected the Temple of Gratitude and Longevity Hill and, following the example of the Han Dynasty Emperor Wu Di who had conducted Kunming Lake naval exercises in the Han capital of Chang' an many centuries before, the Gold Sea was renamed Kunming Lake. At the same, the entire area was called the Park pf Pure Ripples (Qingyiyuan).

[Billy]

The Summer Palace has fallen prey to two acts of destruction. The first took place in 1860 when the Anglo-French forces invaded Beijing and ravaged both the Yuanmingyuan Garden and the Park of Pure Ripples. Every single building in the park was destroyed by fire except nonflammable structures such as bronze pavilions and stone pagodas.

One gate of Suzhoue Jie

Tibetan Tower