History Trips to China

The Forbidden City was the former imperial palace, which was the home to twenty four Chinese emperors over 491 years between 1420 and 1911. The Forbidden City is now known as the Palace Museum and is open to Beijing’s visitors. Wear comfortable walking shoes as the palace is 960 meters long and 750 meters wide.

Tiananmen Square was the original gate to the Imperial Palace, and has been burnt down and rebuilt many times between 1417 and 1651. Today, it is remembered as the place where Mao Tse-Tung declared the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China (1949) and more recently was the scene of the 1989 Massacre.

The Temple of Heaven was completed in 1420, but has been expanded over the years by two Qing Dynasty Emperors. Quinian Hall, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, with the three blue tiled cone shaped roofs, has become a worldwide symbol of Beijing.

The Great Wall of China was built over more than two thousand years. Construction on the first section began between the 7th and 6th century BC, and the last work on the wall was done between the 14th and 17th centuries. It is one of the Great Wonders from the world and is said to be the only man made object visible from space.

The Ming Tombs are the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). They have been perfectly preserved, as has the necropolis of each of the emperors. Because of its long history, palatial and integrated architecture, the site has a high cultural and historic value. The layout and arrangement of all 13 mausoleums are very similar but vary in size and complexity of their structures.

The Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of Chinese Revolution share a single building complex, which runs more than 300 meters north and south along the eastern side of Tiananmen Square. The four-story main building with its two symmetrical wings was built in 1959 as part of the project to build 10 monumental buildings in Beijing.

The Mausoleum memorialises the founder and first Chairman of the People's Republic of China, who passed away at the age of 82 in 1976. It provides people with a place to show their respects to Chairman Mao. His body lies in state on a bed covered in a crystalline sarcophagus and surrounded by flowers. During the day his coffin is raised by an elevator and is on display for all to see, and at night he is lowered back into his earthquake proof chamber beneath Tiananmen Square.

This is the most significant archeological excavation in the 20th century, and work is still ongoing. It was first discovered when a group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well in 1974. Archeologists were alerted and soon established they were from the Qin dynasty (211-206 BC). Altogether approx 8,000 pottery soldiers, horses, chariots and weapons have been unearthed to their former grandeur, it was listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1987.

The 7-storey high Great Wild Goose Pagoda was built in 652AD. It is a striking elegant building and is the symbol of Xian. The famous Buddhist monk Xuan Zang returned from a 17 year pilgrimage and the square pagoda was built to house the 600 or so Buddhist texts that he had collected in India.

The Bell Tower is a stately traditional building, which marks the geographical center of the ancient capital. The wooden tower, which is the largest and best preserved of its kind in China, is 36 metres high. It stands on brick base 35.5 metres long and 8.6 metres high on each side. During the Ming Dynasty, Xian was an important military town in Northwest China, a fact that is reflected in the size and historic significance of its tower