Beijing----the capital of China

Beijing is the capital of China and the political, economic, cultural center of China.

It is located in the northern plain in China. Beijing has the history of over 3000 years, and has been the capital of China for over 800 years.

As you can see from the map, it is a very well organised city. It is structured in a square shape and the most important government offices are in the centre of Beijing.

As I mention above, Beijing has been the capital from 800 years ago, therefore, all the important historical builings for the ancient royal family were built along the 'Axile Wire' in Beijing. And Chinese called it 'Long Mai' (Dragon Vein), that means it is the most important location in Beijing even China, which involed the  theory of 'fengshui'.

The Forbidden City (Impirial Palace), drum-tower, bell-tower, the national grand theater, Temple of Heaven, Olympic Park (Bird's Nest & the Water Cube) ect. are all located on the 'Long Mai'.

Let's start our journey from going along the 'Long Mai'.

 Forbidden City: located in the centre of Beijing, total 720,000 square metre.

This is the north gate of Foridden City, red wall and yellow root, very traditional architecture of royal family, because only the royal family can use bright yelloy color.

It is very Magnificent and very beautiful ancient China's architecture. The buildings and the design are the fruit of labour and culture. When I was walking in here, I could event feel the footfrint of ancient people.

The building behind is the main entrance of Forbidden City, and nowadays, it is called 'Tian An Men'. And the street behind is Chang An Street, which is the longgest and widdest street in the world.

This was the place where the King dicussed national and political issues with officers. 

Bell-tower: used to report time to the people in beijing

It is a Chinese clock which counted the time used the techonogy of water and machenic. It used to be very accurate, but unfortunately the Eight-Nation Allied Army destroyed it when they progress againt China about 100 years ago.

This is the Drum-tower, just located in the oppersite side of bell-tower, because they are related. When the Chinese New Year eve comes, the drums will be hit in the drum-tower to report a new year according to the accurate time reported by bell-tower.

Temple of Heaven: It was used for the royal family to pray for the nation's peace and stabllise.

In ancient, only the King could hold the ceremony.

The Olympic Park: 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

This is the main stadium: Bird's Nest.

Let's go inside.

Red is the main color in China, as it represent luck, fortune and happyness.

★Recommendations by SISI★

This is a very famous business street in Beijing. The map of it looks like a pine, so it is called 'Yandai Byway'.

 The shops in this byway sell so many traditionaly Chinses staffs.

It is worth to come here to have a look and buy some souveniers.

famous Beijing opera's facial make up toys

Dongzhimen Street: it has been a business street since Qing Dynasty.

you can also find some instresting Chinese staffs in here.

★Tips for travell★

1. The rushhour's traffic in Beijing is very mass so that try to avoid the rushhour to transform from different places.

2. The weather in beijing is very dry. drink more water and get a hand balm with you.

3. If you travell to Beijing in wintter, you may properlly see the snow. It is very georgous to visit the Forbidden City with snow.

Edit by SiSi (sijie song)

Lets go to Japan - Okinawa~(1) Shuri Castle

Hi guys, this is my first ever post in TTA, I will bring you guys lots of good fun about travel to Japan. The first place im taking you guys go is Okinawa!
Okinawa is a Island located south of the Japan main Island.
A fun fact is Okinawa is 1,561 km far from Tokyo but is only 201km far from Taiwan.
Therefore, when the Tohoku Earthquake and Tusnami happened last year in march, Okinawa resident does not have any impact, even they don't know it happened until the next day shows on the news.....

Shuri Castle

Some history about it: Shuri Castle is the biggest constrution of the Ryukyu Kingdom. It has 3 levels, 29 meters wide, 17 meters long and 16 meters tall. It was originally built in late 1300s. It was the administrative center and residence of the Ryukyu kings before Okinawa become part of the Japanese perfecture in 1879. However the building was destroyed after wars and fires over a few centuries, especially the WW2. In 1992, Okinawa Governament had reconstructed the building and bring back the original look of the building in 1992.

This is one of the must go places in Okinawa. By visiting the castle you can understand the history of this place, it has some historical and beautiful buildings with sign explan the deatils of it.

Model shows the old days in Shuri Castle

From SHuri Castle, you can see part of the Naha City.

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Shuri Castle

Address: Shuri Castle, Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

Official Website: http://oki-park.jp/shurijo-park/english/

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Lantau Island - the most popular outlaying island in Hong Kong

Tai O has a history of salt production. In 1940, it was recorded that the Tai Po salt marshes were covering 70 acres (280,000 m²) and that the production has amounted to 25,000 piculs (1,512 metric tons) in 1938.

Currently the fishing lifestyle is dying out. While many residents continue to fish, it barely provides a subsistence income. There is a public school on the island and most young people move away when they come of age. In 2000 a large fire broke out destroying many residences. The village is now mostly squatters huts and dilapidated stilt houses.

Also known as the "Venice of Hong Kong", Tai O is also a hot tourist spot for both foreigners and residents of other parts of Hong Kong, despite damage by a fire in July 2000. The pang uks, a kind of stilt house, built right over the waterway are still quite scenic. A rope bridge tended by local women used to be quite popular with visitors, but it has been replaced with a steel pedestrian bridge in October 1996.

The traditional salted fish and shrimp paste and storefronts at Tai O. For a small fee, some residents will take tourists out on their boats along the river and for short jaunts into the sea. Many tourists come to Tai O specifically to take these trips to see Chinese white dolphins. It is also a good place to see the sunset.

There are two graded building in Tai O - Yeung Hau Temple (built in 1699) and Old Tai O Police Station.

Once you visit Tai O, you must taste the most delicious Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle which is cooked by an old man, it's a bit sweet in general and it's texture is really like a spongecake.  Also, Tofu-fa is also a must eat item which is served with ginger syrup.

To avoid the crowded situation, I would like to recommend that visitors can visit this place on weekdays and especially do not visit on public holiday.  It is because most of the tourisms are always travel there on weekend and public holiday.

Storyboard of our blog-First blog

We have three bloggers in this blog: SiSi, Carol and Garry

As our blog name 'Travel to Asia', our three will blog about the Asian cities and countries we have been to.

Sharing the great view we saw, the landmarks of the cities, what is most famous things in the place etc.

If you want to travel to the place we blog about, please follow up our blog.

Because we will share our travel experience to you.

Maybe it will help you to plan your next holiday/trip.

If you also love travelling, please follow up our blog to share things we saw and went through, and maybe you will find something interesting but you have missed when you were travelling.

 

The layout is centralise the blog post so that the visiter can easily notice what to read.

We choose the "travel" cataloge as our theme because our blog mainly talks about our travels in Asia.

the background is blue and the word is yellow which gives the visiters a distintive and clear look and it is easy to read the yellow text in a blue background.

We use the 'Rock Salt' as the title font because it is more intersting and give the visiters a sence of fun. And having fun and enjoying our blog are the theme of our blog.