China Travel Guide

What do a tiger, a rat, a bell and a drum share in common? No idea? Well, the answer is time – or, to be precise, telling the time. These two animals, along with the dog, the ox and the pig, were time periods in the night for Chinese in days of old, and the drum and the bell were struck to let people know whether it was the hour of the pig, the tiger, or whatever.

If you would like to learn more about time-telling in olden days you should make a trek out to Beijing's Drum Tower and Bell Tower. These two sites, which are situated near to each other, are a popular sightseeing spot with tourists.

Not only do the towers offer fascinating examples of architecture, but you can get sweeping views of the city from the top of both of them. You may even get the opportunity to see a drum performance if you arrive at the designated time. Drum performances start at 9:30 a.m. and then run pretty well every hour, on the half hour, throughout the day, with the last performance at 4:50 p.m.

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Beijing is China's capital and the political, economic, cultural, technological center of the country. Beijing has a long history of over five thousand years and was the capital city of Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and in here 34 emperors ruled China. A long history has left numerous famous historical sites which possess great aesthetic and cultural values. Thus Beijing became a famous tourism city with the reform and opening up of China. In Beijing, you'll see a large collection of ancient imperial palaces, imperial gardens, temples, monasteries, imperial tombs and pagodas. There are also lots of museums, exhibition halls and modern buildings.

As the capital of China, Beijing has a history of over 3000 years. She is the center of China's politics, culture, science, commerce, international interchanging, etc. At the same time, she has reserved her ancient view, so she is also famous for touring. There are various scenic spots in Beijing, many of them are very famous. Following, you can not only have a general understanding of those famous spots, but also have a virtual tour to these places.

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For residents of Wenzhou, a city in East China's Zhejiang province with the highest number of overseas Chinese, discussions about the hottest holiday trip at the moment is not about a romantic sojourn through Europe or a relaxing stay at a tropical island, but a weekend trip to cities in neighboring Fujian province, like Fuzhou.

Despite their well-known desire to explore the world outside their hometown, few Wenzhou residents have visited Fuzhou, although they may have traveled to Europe, Africa or Australia.

Separated by walls of high mountains, residents of the two cities have long lived like they belong to two different continents, despite their geographical proximity. Travel by air was too costly, by bus too tedious and by train, too long.

As a Fujian native, I remember that it took me nearly 14 hours in 1997 to go from my hometown to Zheijiang by the fastest train. But a newly opened express railway line has shortened the travel time between Fuzhou and Wenzhou to just 90 minutes.

I chanced on this information by sheer luck. I was visiting Wenzhou two weeks ago for an interview. When I mentioned my hometown, people responded excitedly saying, "then you might as well go visit your hometown. It is now just 90 minutes away by train!"

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