The world is a huge measuring about 57,308,738 square miles! In this amazing world people have built up communities, and each one is unlike the other. The diverseness of each community, city, state, or even nation can be very significant. With all this diversity it makes people want to travel to new places, and if I could pick on of these diverse communities to travel to, I would travel to the bustling city of Beijing, China.
The history of Beijing is very long and violent and many of China’s major dramas have happened in this city. It was first settled by the Peking man, and many years later the first emperor was created. The first emperor was overthrown by the Mongol horsemen, until only a short time later the rebellious farmers took back their land from the Mongols., creating the Ming dynasty in the process. The word Dynasty means a succession of rulers chosen by their hereditary. Many dynasties took place after the Ming dynasty and each emperor contributed to the beautiful Beijing in there own way, building it up, and increasing the population. During the late 19th century, during the Qing dynasty, British forces attacked Beijing after trading arguments, resulting in the boxer rebellion. Soon, all faith was lost in the Qing court. Shortly after, Mao Zedong’s communist party won a victory in the civil war against the Nationalists, and at this point, most of the old city was destroyed. Instead of trying to bring back the old, they decided to replace it with new, and tore down the old beautiful buildings and replaced them with newer more modern buildings. Many of the temples and palaces were destroyed. After these drastic changes, Beijing became almost what it is today.
When you imagine Beijing, China you may think of massive old sculptures and ancient temples, but not many people my age know what China really is like. Beijing China is actually a huge prospering city, with many skyscrapers and modern buildings. Though it is still famous for its beautiful temples and old architecture, Beijing is really one of the more modern communities.
Beijing is a hot-spot for people in China considered “rich”, 179,000 millionaires and 10,500 people considered really rich live right in Beijing, making Beijing number one for the largest number of very wealthy people in China.
The religions in Beijing are very strict and many are prohibited. Religions other than Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism are illegal. But the funny thing is, the Chinese constitution states that the people have freedom of religion. In China, people practice many different arts including; many sculptures and paintings of Buddha, diverse instruments such as the xun and guqin. China is also the birthplace of Eastern martial arts and Kung Fu.
Chinese characters also are considered art in many countries. In Beijing and throughout China, there are seven main languages. Mandarin dialects are spoken by 71.5 percent of the population, Wu, 8.5 percent, Yue also called Cantonese; 5 percent, Xiang, 4.8 percent, Min, 4.1 percent, Hakka, 3.7 percent and Gan, 2.4 percent.
In my opinion, food is one of the most important parts of life so I gave it a full paragraph to talk about it. In Beijing food is always different. Their staple foods are rice, noodles, and tofu; a meal made from soy milk, water, and a curdling agent. In Beijing, they eat basically every kind of meat, but the most eaten meat is pork, which appears in almost every meal. People also eat a ton eggs in Beijing every year. Beijing uses a ton of vegetables with every meal whether on the side of the meal, or mixed with the food. The wealthier people love fancier cuisine with nicer meats and vegetables, though the normal folk also eat very well most of the time as well.
In Beijing, even after the boxer revolution, there was some ancient architecture that still survived. Among the ruins the temple of heaven, summer palace, forbidden city, Tiananmen square, and several others. But the one I want to talk about today is the great wall of China.
Stretching over 5,500 miles and around 33 feet tall and 15 feet wide, it is an amazing sight to see.
Originally made to keep out the northern invaders such as the Mongols, it is now used as a tourist attraction.
In conclusion, I have shared with you why I think Beijing would be an amazing place to travel to. I can’t wait to explore this amazing city.
Originally published 15.10.2019