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Day 2
Saturday
03 November 2007
Weather: Fine
Today is my second official day in beijing! Today went to two different places, Yi He Yuan and Yuan Ming Yuan. Really majestic places especially for the latter. Yi He Yuan also known as summer palace, is basically a chinese garden situated in the outskirts of beijing. The emperor' s house is there too. There are alot of bridges and hills weaving around a lake. This lake takes a special shape. It has the shape of the map of China, as said to be shaped like a bird's wing. Truely a remarkable landmark which marks its history of very long time ago.
Yuan Ming Yuan is another park with a ancient relic site next to it. The site was invaded by the French and English men in the 1860s in early October ( the whole process of destroying the site was from October 6th till October 19th) The site marks a certain value of china's history as many important articles and treasure was stored at yuan ming yuan. The whole place was thorn down and burnt down by the French and English and only little bits of stone rubble was left. After destroying the place, the invaders left. This is a really cruel way to deal with what they cannot acheive. It is not fair and unjust to tear down property that does not belong to them.Many precious articles up till now have not been recovered as the english soldiers stole them and distributed it world wide. Some have even been smashed into pieces. The area of fountains and pools are now left with large chunks of rocks and stones. Really a true and magnificient place.
This marks the end of today's entry. My legs are all aching now as we walked a lot today. We walked round the whole yi he yuan (round the lake) and walk even more at yuan ming yuan. Tomorrow will be shopping spree and kboxing day. Today was history, tomorrow is now. Oldern vs Modern.
I saw the bird's nest too today when we were on the way to yi he yuan. The official 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium. It is really a huge site and it will be worked to full force in 2008.
Coundown to 2008 Beijing Olympics: 279 Days from today
New Facts I have learnt about China/Beijing:
There are a total of 88 bridges in Beijing.
The lake at yi he yuan takes the shape of China's map.