Monthly Archives: November 2014

Mutianyu Great Wall, is one of the most famous and best preserved sections of the Great Wall together with Badaling  and Jinshanling  sections.Located in Huairou County northeast of the Beijing urban area, the Mutianyu Great Wall crosses the mountain ridges connecting Juyongguan Pass to the west and Gubeikou to the east. Along with nearby Huanghua Great Wall and Jiankou pass, these fortifications make up the northern barrier protecting Beijing city and the imperial mausoleums. High quality construction and unique features make this section of the Great Wall a prominent feature in the defense of the Capital and an exciting tourist destination. 

Mutianyu is a section of the Great Wall of China located in Huairou County 70 km northeast of central Beijing. First built in the mid-6th century during the Northern Qi, Mutianyu Great Wall is older than the Badaling section of the Great Wall. In the Ming dynasty, under the supervision of General Xu Da, construction of the present wall began on the foundation of the wall of Northern Qi. In 1404, a pass was built in the wall. In 1569, the Mutianyu Great Wall was rebuilt and till today most parts of it are well preserved. The Mutianyu Great Wall has the largest construction scale and best quality among all sections of Great Wall. Mutianyu’s 2.5 kilometer stretch of the Wall allows you to walk for more than an hour as you explore 22 watchtowers and the valley on both sides of the Wall. In late afternoon, or in poor weather, you often might find yourself alone with only the sound of the wind to keep you company. Travel back in time and see the Wall as it was when it was built hundreds of years ago.

Mutianyu  is considered as the most beautiful Great Wall in Beijing. It is a bit more rugged and slightly less crowded than the more famous Badaling. There are abundant natural springs which feed a great variety of plants and trees. Over 96% of Mutianyu is covered by trees and orchards, keeping the air fragrant with chestnut blossoms in the spring and fresh all year long. Besides, The Mutianyu Pass consists of 3 watchtowers, one big in the centre and two smaller on both sides. Standing on the same terrace, the three watchtowers are connected to each other inside and compose a rarely seen structure among all sections of Great Wall.

Travelers visiting the Mutianyu Great Wall have the possibility to experience the Great Wall in different ways, whether using the thousands stone steps or a cable car. Definitely one of the best places to hike for experiencing the Great Wall, Mutianyu and its surrounding lush forest and woodland transports everyone back to ancient times, back in Imperial China.

Badaling Great Wall Being the ancient military defence project, Great Wall is symbol and proud of China. This UNESCO World Heritage Site has a history which dates back over 2500 years. Badaling means “giving access to every direction”. The name itself reminds us of its historical and strategic importance. Badaling Great Wall is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately 50 miles (80 km) northwest of urban Beijing city in Yanqing County, which is within the Beijing municipality. It is the best preserved and the most magnificent. The portion of the wall running through the site was built in 1504 during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military outpost reflecting the location’s strategic importance. The highest point of Badaling is Beibalou, approximately 1,015 meters above sea level.

The Great Wall is a symbol of ancient Chinese civilization and a world-renowned fortification. Stretching 6,350 kilometers on the mountains in Northern China, the Great Wall was first built in the 7th century B.C. and completed during the reign of the first Emperor of Qin. It was extended during the Ming Dynasty. Being one of the “seven wonders of the world”, it has been listed as a world cultural heritage. The wall of Badaling has a total length of 3, 741 meters with an average height of 8 meters. The highest part is 15 meters. The total area for a tour is 19, 000 square meters. The top of the wall can permit five horses to be ridden abreast. There are arched doors at the inner side of the wall with very little distance between each two doors. The arched doors lead you to the top of the wall by stone stairs.

It is now a major tourist attraction in China with sections of the wall being restored for this purpose – especially near Beijing.  The portion of the wall at Badaling has undergone restoration, and in 1957 it was the first section of the wall to open to tourists. Now visited annually by millions, the immediate area has seen significant development, including hotels, restaurants, and a cable car. The recently completed Badaling Expressway connects Badaling with central Beijing. It is convenient to visit Great Wall from Beijing. There are many sections of Great Wall around Beijing city. Badaling Great Wall is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall partly because it is close to Beijing city and connected with urban area by expressway.

The total length of the wall is unknown. Its size, age, complexity and general state of disrepair mean that new sections of wall are still being identified and some sections my yet await discovery. In its last incarnation, during the Ming Dynasty, the wall reached its zenith in building quality and length measuring 5,650 km and crossing 17 provinces in North and Central China.This section of wall is the first section opened to tourists (in 1957) after reconstructed. Badaling Great Wall shows the Great Wall as it would have looked originally, and it does not look too new. That is another reason of why most travelers choose Badaling Great Wall. Set in a steep, forested mountain range, Badaling offers superb views and for those willing to travel beyond the restored sections, worthwhile hiking. The climb is so demanding, especially in the summer heat, that the crowds thin out after a few hundred meters (unless you take the cable car to the top, which some think spoils the experience). However, the guard towers are uniquely constructed so that the cool mountain breezes naturally air condition the interior. Weary travelers can literally “chill” in the guard towers before continuing along.

Located on Chang’an Avenue of Xicheng District, Capital Museum began its initial work at 1953, and till 1981 it opened to the public. The core of Beijing Capital Museum expressed elegant Beijing culture and its glorious history. The design concepts on Beijing Capital Museum are People-oriented, based on cultural relics and service for the society. It stressed Past and future, history and modernity, art and nature harmonious and unified. Although Capital Museum in Beijing pales in comparison to the visitors received in other major attractions, such as Forbidden City (Palace Museum) and Badaling Great Wall, it has became more and more popular among home and abroad. With its incomparable cultural function, the museum offers systematic presentation and knowledge to visitors on China history and culture.

In 2001, the museum started to develop its construction with taking Beijing Confucian Temple as its precursor, and finished in May 2006. By adopting advanced technology and first-class management, the Capital Museum collects over 200,000 cultural relics and exhibits in several different theme halls. Good news for us that since 2008, the museum has been free to visitors with a limit of 4000 per day. If the Confucius Temple were entitled as a glorious palace, then the cultural relics collected by Beijing Capital Museum is the rarity of this palace. There are lots of elaborate works in the palace such as the stoneware, bronze ware, ceramics, stone inscriptions, calligraphy and paintings, etc. The time duration of Beijing Historic Cultural Relic Exhibition can be traced back from hundreds thousand years to the year 1949. It elaborates the scenes of Beijing historic development in multiple profiles and levels through series of pictures, models and cultural relics.

The majority of exhibits at the Capital Museum are cultural relics unearthed in Beijing. The Museum is a modern exhibition center with unique Beijing characteristics representing Beijing’s history, cultural relics, archaeological discoveries and cutting-edge research results of relevant disciplines. The Museum has cast out dull exhibition modes of the past and offers an experience-based tour fully capitalizing on modern exhibition techniques.

The museum opens several major exhibition halls according to different themes, such as bronze, jadeware, chinaware, painting, calligraphy and buddha, etc. Famous for the oval-shape Bronze Exhibition Hall and Jade Ware Exhibition Hall, also, museum’s some temporary exhibition halls often accept a amount of relics and collections from other museums or private exhibitions to exhibit for a short term.

The most distinctive feature of the Museum is its unswerving focus on the transformation and development of Beijing and telling the story of an ancient Chinese city with a multi-dimensional interpretation involving such aspects as geography, folk customs, antiques, etc. Permanent exhibitions at the Museum include Ancient Capital – History and Culture, Ancient Capital Beijing – Urban Construction, and Old Stories of Beijing – Exhibition of Old Beijing Folk Customs. The core purpose of the exhibitions is to meticulously display Beijing’s history and culture. These exhibitions are like a history book by which we can try to decipher Beijing.

Ever since the establishment of Beijing Capital Museum, it held hundreds exhibitions in different types concerning the history, cultural relics, revolutionary history and folk custom, etc. Moreover, it also held different types of exhibition in Japan, America, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries so that it carried forward Chinese culture and expanded international communication and received deep concern and warmly welcome by the foreign and domestic peoples. Magnificent Beijing Capital Museum is your ideal vacation choice and it will enter a new era to gain much success.