headseast

From the Beijinger:

“The Global Times recently reported a planned expansion of the areas of the Forbidden City open to tourists, from 30 percent to 70 percent of the complex’s total area. As well as opening up new areas of the City, the renovation aims to relieve congestion and stress on the current zones open to visitors.

According to the report the area of the Forbidden City open at present has an ideal daily capacity of approximately 30,000, yet the City sees as many as 130,000 visitors a day during peak tourist seasons. Overwhelming crowds has led to damage and general wear that many hope will be relieved with the opening of new sections within the walled City.

The expansion project marks the start of phase two of long-term renovations; the first phase began in 2002, continued for six-years and restored areas already open to the public. Beijingers may remember that many of the gates were spruced up in the years before the Beijing Olympics.

This new phase will work on areas not currently open to the public and is scheduled to continue through to 2020. Tourists may see new areas of the Forbidden City open to them within a year however.”

Came across this from SkyscraperCity of Shanghai’s Pudong are – same perspective taken in 1990 and in again in 2010.

After a 33 month renovation costing an estimated 5 billion yuan (US$732 million) Shanghai’s famous Bund running alongside the Huangpu River has finally reopened as planned in time for May’s Shanghai Expo.

Gone is the 11-lane highway which has been cut down to four lanes, with 70 percent of the Bund’s traffic diverted into a two-tier underground tunnel. This has freed up space for a larger pedestrian promenade now stretching 2.6km with a staggering 2,000 park benches!

Below is a photo from 2009 of the Bund’s European architecture at night. Click here for a set of photos from the Shanghaiist of the newly opened Bund.

With only a few months now to the kick off of the Shanghai Expo 2010 the venues are nearing completion and the media buzz is starting to build up. To keep up to date with how construction is coming along a great photo essay can be seen at the Big Picture (photo below courtesy of Big Picture / Reuters / China Daily). Also a run down of some of the better buildings under construction at Lost Laowai will give you a taste of what to expect.

A set of photos here showing how the National Pavilions for the Shanghai Expo are coming on.

Hangzhou has long been famous as a centre for the arts, its wealth built on the silk industry. The chief draw is the West Lake, Xi Hu, which most Chinese regard as the world’s most beautiful lake. The lake is surrounded by gardens and paths, temples and tombs making a day or two here well worth the two hour trip by express train from Shanghai.

An hour from Hangzhou or several hours from Shanghai is curious Wuzhen, an ancient water town much restored to either it’s former glory or as a bit of a historical theme park depending on how you want to view it. The town is made up of a partially restored east side and fully restored west. A mish mash of old and new separates the two zones. The east side has a lived in feel and is more genuine but the west side is far larger and more impressive if a little sanitized. What can’t be ignored is the sheer scale of this tourism project – vast and very ambitious and, overall, very well done so the verdict is that it is worth a visit.

Quite simply, one of the world’s most extraordinary buildings, the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, dominates the city and can be seen from many points across Lhasa. The former palace of the Dalai Lamas it is now effectively a museum and has some amazing treasures inside including the stupa of the 5th Dalai Lama which is made of over 3,700 kg of gold and 10,000 precious stones. The palace dates back to the 7th century but has been extensively added to since then. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Well of course there are loads of new hotels in China opening every day but here at Headseast if it combines travel with architecture and design as well as some nice photos it stands out for us and deserves a mention.

So, two new hotels with character, one in Shanghai and the other in rival Hong Kong just to be fair. Click on the photos below to be taken to the hotel’s websites.

This time a year ago the Beijing Olympics were in full swing. After being in Beijing for the full four year build up I spent the first half of the games in Xinjiang on holiday – about as far away from the event as you can get in China which felt like a welcome breath of fresh air at the time. I did get back for the last week of the games though and immersed myself into several events including a couple of at the stadium pictured below.

The bird’s Nest has now become a popular tourist attraction in Beijing and appears on an increasing number of itineraries as something approaching a standard option. I think the best combination is to spend a morning seeing the stadium and equally futuristic Water Cube and then go back in time to old China in the Hutongs – the contrast in architecture and life in general couldn’t be more stark.

Below are two of my favourite photos of the iconic Bird’s Nest Stadium – the centre piece of the 2008 games.