http://www.articletrader.com/ Articles at ArticleTrader en-us http://www.articletrader.com/travel/destinations/lugouqiao-marco-polo-bridge.html http://www.articletrader.com/travel/destinations/lugouqiao-marco-polo-bridge.html Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600 Lugou Qiao, also known as the Marco Polo Bridge, is one of earliest segmented stone arch bridge about 16 km in the outside of Beijing

The Diary of Marco Polo says "Over this river there is a very fine stone bridge, so fine indeed, that it has very few equals in the world."... A very great stone bridge... For you may know that there are few of them in the world so beautiful, nor its equal ... It is made like this. I tell you that it is quite three hundred paces long and quite eight paces wide, for ten horsemen can well go there one beside the other ... It is all of grey marble very well worked and well founded. There is above each side of the bridge a beautiful curtain or wall of flags of marble and pillars made so, as I shall tell you ... And there is fixed at the head of the bridge a marble pillar, and below the pillar a marble lion ... very beautiful and large and well made." This description earned the bridge its name, Marco Polo, in the Western World.

The Lugou Bridge is located 15 kilometers southwest of Beijing proper. Known also as the Guangli Bridge, it spans the banks of the Yongding River. According to historical records, the Lugou River is also called the Heishui (Black Water) River. In the local dialect in ancient times, lu (reed) meant black; thus the Heishui River became known as the Lugou River, and the bridge was accordingly given the same name.

The Lugou Bridge has been standing over the Yongding River for 800 years. In the Mingchang period (1190-1208) of the Jin dynasty, the bridge was listed into the "Eight Scenic Spots of Yanjing (Beijing)" under the title "Lugou Xiaoyue" (Moon over the Lugou Bridge at Dawn), which has remained throughout the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.

Officially the bridge was called the "Lugou Stone Bridge", and it was built completely of white stone and looked majestic with a total of 485 stone lions lined on the balustrades of both sides.

The stone lions on the posts of the bridge are most famous. There is an interesting proverb that "the lions of the Lugou Bridge are too numerous to count," So you can imagine yourself how many lions there are. It is said that there are 485 in all, and someone also says there are 498 or 501. And, which is more important, all the lions have been delicately carved, and every two of them have some differences between them. In this way, the bridge is just like an art gallery.

A pair of vividly carved reclining stone elephants and a number of other animal figures guards each end of the bridge. At the extremes of the bridge there are two stone steles, one recording the history of the renovation work carried out in the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), and the other bearing the inscription "The Moon over the Lugou Bridge at Dawn" in the handwriting of Emperor Qianlong.

The Lugou Bridge is situated at a strategic point on the one overland route to the capital from the south. Bridge construction was begun in 1189 and completed four years later. The bridge is 235 meters long of white marble. It has 11 arches and as many broad piers.

This bridge has been repaired for many times, recording many historical facts. On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops illegally occupied a railway junction near Wanping and fighting erupted. This is considered by many to be the date when the war between China and Japan began. The war ended with the end of WWII. The "Lugou Bridge Event" will be a sign of the inexorable Chinese People into the history for ever.



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http://www.beijing-travel.cn/Beijing_Attractions/Lugou_Qiao.htm

Source: http://www.articletrader.com ]]> http://www.articletrader.com/travel/destinations/lijiang-travel-guide.html http://www.articletrader.com/travel/destinations/lijiang-travel-guide.html Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600
Geographic location
Lijiang is located at the foot of the snow-capped Yulong Mountains, which is in the southeastern part of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau known as the 'roof of the world' and the northwestern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. Lijiang covers 7485.2 square kilometers, 95% of which is mountainous area. It's located at 99o 30' E to 100o 50' E and 26o N to 27o 50' N with the altitude of 2,400 meters. There are two snow-capped Mountains, namely Yulong Mountain and Laojun Mountain. Besides, there are Jinsha and Lancang Rivers flowing though this area. There is the subtropical monsoon climate with the annual temperature of 12.6 Co and precipitation of 900 to 1,200 mm. Spring there lasts as long as 241 days and there is no hot summer.

People
There are 306,000 people in Lijiang. It is home to people of more than 20 minority ethnic groups, the bulk of whom are the Naxi. Each of these ethnic groups has a unique culture and history, which match into the beauty of the land, setting an example of a harmonious relationship between man and nature. China's languages are classified into four major linguistic families, and the Naxi belong to the Sino-Tibetan group. It is not uncommon to find those among the Naxi who can fluently speak two or three languages. Their native language is called Naxi or Nahsi, and the children are also taught Mandarin Chinese at school. A majority of the Naxi can both read and write Chinese. Naxi Nationality are the offspring of ancient Qiang people who in history wandered south or north along the gorges of the Hengduan Mountain range and settled down very early on the west band of Jinsha River at the upper reaches of the Changjiang River. The Naxi created a written language over1, 000 years ago using an extraordinary system of pictographs. The most famous Naxi text is the Dongba classic The Creation, and ancient copies of it and other texts can still be found in Lijiang, as well as in the archives of some and mediators between the Naxi and the spirit world. Their original religion, called Dongba after the name of its ritual specialists, resembles the nature worship and other concepts of pre-Buddhist Tibet. The Naxi ethnic group maintains its rich traditional culture, and the tens of thousands of ancient books written in Dongba characters are unique in the world's cultural history. It has aroused the interest of the world's scholars. Lijiang boasts 'the home of the Dongba culture'. The Dongba culture includes pictographic characters, scriptures, paintings, music and dances. The first classical Naxi orchestra was founded under Kublai Khan's patronage, and the music and tradition have remained unchanged for over seven centuries.Naxi people believe in Confucianism. You can easily converse with senior citizens who are full of wisdom on the street, or you can find exquisite calligraphy or paintings in an ordinary family home. Many people preserve precious thread-books in their wooden cupboards. However the main religion in Lijiang is still the Buddhism.

History
The history of Lijiang dates back to the South Song period (1127-1279AD). In 1253, Kublai, in his expedition to conquer the state of Dali, came to what is now Lijiang after his troops crossed the Jinsha River by using inflated bags of animal hide. That explains why many names of places in the Naxi languages are transliterations of 'army camps,' 'drilling grounds,' etc. for the Mongolian language. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368AD), there were about 1,000 families in Lijiang, which constantly grew in size during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Since the Qing Dynasty, Lijiang has been the distribution center for goods produced in northwest of Yunnan province. Tibetans send their woolen textiles and medicinal herbs here for shipment to other parts of China, and tea and articles for daily use from Xishuang Banna, Fengqing and Xiaguan of Yunnan province are sold to Tibetan areas via the town. During the Second World War, the Flying Tigers (a group of American pilots voluntarily helping China in fighting the Japanese invaders) built the Baisha Airport in the Lijiang area to implement what is known to historians as the 'Hump Operation.'

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