China (Beijing) Oct 2009 D-26 & D-27

For the next 3 days in Beijing, I used a combination of public buses, Metro and day tour to visit a number of UNESCO sites. Most of these places were crowded with people due to the long holidays from 1-8 Oct. I was in Beijing in June 09 after my Tran-Siberian train ride so I am quite familiar with the local public transport in and around Beijing.

1) Site of Peking Man at Zhokuodian, Beijing (entrance fee CNY30) - A UNESCO heritage site. Located 50km from Beijing, I had to take bus N0 917 from Tien Ciao ( Sky Bridge) and then bus N0 38 to Zhokuodian. 40 Peking men fossils were discovered in 1927 inside a cave in Zhoukuodian, dating back to 500,000 years ago.

2) Old Summer Palace & Garden, Beijing (entrance fee CNY25) - A civilized wonder of the world. The garden covers a huge area - some 2.5km so you may have to spend 3-4 hours here in order to see all the major ruins - how nice if all the European style palaces are still remained today ! The entire place was burned down by foreign troops during the Second Opium War (1856-60) . At the time of my visit, there was an exhibition of 12 Zodiac ( priceless bronze figure of 12 animal Zodiac heads - only 3 animal figure heads had so far returned to China ) .

3) Eastern Qing Tombs, Zunhua, 125km from Beijing (CNY110) - A UNESCO heritage site - Located 125km from Beijing. I joined a day tour (CNY180) to visit this place. As the area is huge, our tour members had to hire a van or bicycle trishaw (CNY30 each) to take us to the various tombs. The 5 Qing emperors buried here are: Qianglong, Kangxi, Shunzi, Xianfeng and Tonzhi. Empress Dowager Cixi, Yu Fei, Cian tombs are also found here. Cixi and Qianglong's tombs were plundered in the 1920's.

4) Confucian Temple & Guozijian Museum, Beijing (entrance fee CNY10) - located not far from the Lama Temple. The 2nd largest Confucian temple in China, after the Qufu in Shandong province. Guozijian is the Imperial College, the supreme academy which conducted the ancient Confucian examination system during the Yuan, Ming & Qing dynasties.

5) Temple of the Land, Beijing - Another ancient worship place similar to that of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

6) Olympic Park, Beijing - Houses the iconic Bird Nest and Water Cube stadium - now a popular tourist sites for locals and overseas. The best time to visit is in the evening when the light is on.

" The 500,000 year old Peking man fossils; The old Summer Palace ruins; The iconic Bird Nest & Water Cube Olympic stadiums; The Qing Tombs; The words of wisdom from Confucius; China's 60 Anniversary celebration in Tiananmen Square - a country rich in history and resources, all this made my China visit a really interesting one - never a dull moment.

The Secrets of Life - Be gentle with earth "