Cultural sightseeing in China. What to visit - museums, temples, castles and palaces

» The main objective of the National Museum of China is preservation and promotion of Chinese art and history.
» The museum is the four-storey building, whose facade is decorated with eleven columns.
» The venue combines two other museums.
» The National Museum of China contains more than half a million exhibits, the history of which covers more than 5,000-year period.
» One of the most famous exhibits is the Jade Prince made of thousands of pieces of jade faceted and interconnected with gold wire.

» There are two railway museums in Beijing. One is on the outskirts of the city in a huge hangar.
»  It has collected more than 50 locomotives of different periods of development of China's railway network. If you want, you can climb up to any of them and inspect the trains from the inside.
»  Several old steam locomotives have bas-reliefs of Mao Jie Dong and other famous people. These reliefs are stamped on the front panels of locomotives.
»  Another museum is in the building of the Eastern Railway Station. It is located on four floors and is dedicated to the history of the railway traffic in country.
»  The East Railway Station was built by the British in 1906 and became the largest in China. There are various relics related to the railway movement.
»  It contains an interesting exposition of ancient tickets. There are instances from the time of the reign of the imperial dynasty of Qing and Guo Min Dao. You will see a printing device for making tickets, which is still in working conditions.
»  There is also a modern exposition, where models of new high-speed trains are presented.

» The Shanghai Science and Technology Museum is the popular, educational, entertainment and tourist facility.
» Exhibits of the museum are devoted to nature, man, science and technology.
» The museum is divided into seven exhibition areas: Secrets of Planet Earth, Living Beings and Phenomena of Nature, Light of Wisdom, Audio&Visual Entertainment Park, Cradle of Design, Children’s Rainbow Land and Museum of Nature.
»  The museum also houses a cinema with a big screen and a 3D dome theater, as well as gift shops, multi-purpose hall banks and other complex objects.
» Currently, 1,272 species of fish and 331 species of mammals are represented in the museum.

» The Shanghai Museum is the museum of ancient Chinese art, founded in 1952.
» Construction of the modern museum building began in August 1993; the museum was re-opened to the public on October 12, 1996.
» The five-storey building has height of 30 meters and occupies 39,200 m2.
» The museum building is designed in shape of an ancient bronze tripod, the most well-known form of ritual utensils in China. The building has a round top and a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese perception of the world as round sky and flat rectangular land.
» The Shanghai Museum has collected about 120 thousand exhibits. It has valuable collections of bronzes, ceramics, calligraphy, furniture, jade statues, old coins, paintings, print and sculpture.
» The Shanghai Museum has items of national importance, including one of the three existing models of transparent bronze mirrors of the Han Dynasty.

» The Summer Palace is the residence of emperors situated on the outskirts of Beijing. The park near the palace accommodates more than 3,000 facilities.
» Translated from the Chinese, the original name of the Summer Palace means 'the park of serenity and peace'.
»  By order of the emperor in 1750, Garden of Clear Ripples was laid there. A man-made lake was created there, as well as a Longevity Hill, on top of which Buddhist temples were built.
» A long corridor located near the coast is considered the world's longest painted corridor; it lasts for 728 meters.
» About 8,000 pictures are hanging on the walls of this long corridor.
» The beach is notable for the famous marble boat, favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who spent for construction of the palace the sum equal to 940,000 kg of silver.

» The Temple of Heaven is the monastic complex, which includes only the main temple of circular shape, the Harvest Temple.
» The temple is more than 500 years old; it's one of the major historical sites in China.
» Roofs of main buildings of the temple are made of blue glazed tiles, the color of the sky.
» The Temple of Heaven was built in 1420 and originally was called the Temple of Heaven and Earth, as there rendered prayers for Heaven and Earth.
» The temple is surrounded by two walls, external and internal. The southern part of the Temple of Heaven is square, and its northern part is rounded, as a circle represents the celestial powers, and a square serves for the forces of the Earth.