182 CHINA - Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa (UNESCO)

The Potala Palace symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism and its central role in the traditional administration of Tibet. Also founded in the 7th century, the Jokhang Temple Monastery is an exceptional Buddhist religious complex. Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's former summer palace, constructed in the 18th century, is a masterpiece of Tibetan art. The beauty and originality of the architecture of these three sites, their rich ornamentation and harmonious integration in a striking landscape, add to their historic and religious interest. Construction of the Potala Palace began at the time of Songtsen of the Thubet (Tubo) dynasty in the 7th century AD. It was rebuilt in the mid-17th century by the 5th Dalai Lama in a campaign that lasted 30 years, reaching its present size in the years that followed, as a result of repeated renovation and expansion. The Potala is located on Red Mountain, 3,700 m above sea level, in the centre of the Lhasa valley. It covers an area of over 130,000 m2 and stands more than 110 m high. The White palace is approached by a winding road leading to an open square in front of the palace. Its central section is the East Main Hall, where all the main ceremonies take place. The throne of the Dalai Lama is on the north side of the hall, the walls of which are covered with paintings depicting religious and historical themes. At the top of the White Palace is the personal suite of the Dalai Lama. The Red Palace lies to the west of the White Palace. Its purpose is to house the stupas holding the remains of the Dalai Lamas. It also contains many Buddha and sutra halls. To the west of the Red Palace is the Namgyel Dratshang, the private monastery of the Dalai Lama. Other important components of the Potala complex are the squares to the north and south and the massive palace walls, built from rammed earth and stone and pierced by gates on the east, south and west sides. Building of the Jokhang Temple Monastery began in the 7th century CE, during the Tang dynasty in China. The Tibetan imperial court eagerly espoused Buddhism when it was introduced,

The site of the Temple Monastery was selected, according to legend, when the cart in which Wen Cheng was bringing the statue of Sakyamuni sank into the mud by Wotang Lake. Divination identified this as the site of the Dragon Palace, the malign influence of which could only be counteracted by the building of a monastery. The foundation stone was laid in 647 and the first major reconstruction took place in the early 11th century. During the century following the reunification of the Tibetan kingdom by the Sakya dynasty in the mid-13th century, a number of new developments took place. These included extension of the Hall of Buddha Sakyamuni and construction of a new entrance and the Hall of Buddha Dharmapala. The Temple Monastery is in the centre of the old town of Lhasa. It comprises essentially an entrance porch, a courtyard and a Buddhist hall, surrounded by accommodation for monks and storehouses on all four sides. The buildings are constructed of wood and stone. The 7th Dalai Lama is reported to have had health problems and he used to come here for a cure. The construction of Norbulingka started in 1751 with the Uya Palace. Successive Dalai Lamas continued building pavilions, palaces and halls, making it their summer residence, and soon the site became another religious, political, and cultural centre of Tibet, after the Potala Palace. Norbulingka (treasure garden) is located at the bank of the Lhasa River about 2 km west of the Potala Palace. The site consists of a large garden with several palaces, halls, and pavilions, amounting to some 36 ha. The area is composed of five sections.

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? (UNESCO Forum) sent from ? (China) on 14.01.2014

175 CHINA - The Great Wall (UNESCO WHS)

Known to the Chinese as the 'Long Wall of Ten Thousand Li', the formidable defensive structures built to ward off invasion of the Celestial Empire by barbarians is called the Great Wall or the Wall of China by Europeans. The principle of these extraordinary fortifications goes back to the Chunqiu period (722-481 BC) and to the Warring States period (453-221 BC). The construction of certain walls can be explained by feudal conflicts, such as that built by the Wei in 408 BC to defend their kingdom against the Qin. Its vestiges, conserved in the centre of China, antedate by many years the walls built by the Kingdoms of Qin, Zhao and Yan against the northern barbarians around 300 BC. Beginning in 220 BC, Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the Empire of the Ten Thousand Generations, undertook to restore and link up the separate sections of the Great Wall which had been built in the 3rd century BC, or perhaps even earlier, and which stretched from the region of the Ordos to Manchuria. Towards the west, he had extended the fortifications, the first cohesive defence system of which significant vestiges still remain in the valley of the Huanghe all the way to Lanzhou shortly before the accession of the Han dynasty (206 BC). During their reign the Great Wall was extended even further, and under the emperor Wudi (140-87 BC) it spanned approximately 6,000 km between Dunhuang in the west and the Bohai Sea in the east. The danger of incursion along the northern Chinese border by the federated Mongols, Turks and Tunguz of the Empire of the Xiongnu, the first empire of the steppes, made a defence policy more necessary than ever. After the downfall of the Han dynasty (AD 220), the Great Wall entered its medieval phase. Construction and maintenance works were halted; China at that time enjoyed such great military power that the need for a defence policy was no longer felt.

It was the Ming Emperors (1368-1644) who, after the long period of conflict that ended with the expulsion of the Mongols, revived the tradition begun by Qin Shi Huang. During the Ming dynasty, 5,650 km of wall were built. To defend the northern frontier, the Wall was divided into nine Zhen, military districts rather than garrisons. At strategic points, fortresses were built to defend the towns, passes, or fords. The passageways running along the top of the wall made it possible to move troops rapidly and for imperial couriers to travel. Two symbolic monuments still proudly stand at either end of the wall - the First Door under Heaven at Shanhaiguan, located at the wall's eastern end, and the Last Door under Heaven at Jiayuguan, which, as part of the fortress entirely restored after 1949, marks its north-western end. This complex and diachronic cultural property is an outstanding and unique example of a military architectural ensemble which served a single strategic purpose for 2,000 years, but whose construction history illustrates successive advances in defence techniques and adaptation to changing political contexts. The purpose of The Great Wall was to protect China from outside aggression, but also to preserve its culture from the customs of foreign barbarians. Because its construction implied suffering, it is one of the essential references in Chinese literature. The Great Wall of the Ming is, not only because of the ambitious character of the undertaking but also the perfection of its construction, a masterpiece. The wall constitutes, on the vast scale of a continent, a perfect example of architecture integrated into the landscape. During the Chunqiu period, the Chinese imposed their models of construction and organization of space in building the defence works along the northern frontier. The spread of Sinicism was accentuated by the population transfers necessitated by the Great Wall. That the great walls bear exceptional testimony to the civilizations of ancient China is illustrated as much by the tamped-earth sections of fortifications dating from the Western Han that are conserved in Gansu Province as by the admirable and universally acclaimed masonry of the Ming period.

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Starring You sent from ? (China) on 14.01.2014

157 CHINA - Ancient City of Ping Yao (UNESCO)

The Ancient City of Ping Yao is an outstanding example of a Han Chinese city of the Ming and Qing dynasties (14th-20th centuries) that has retained all its features to an exceptional degree and, in doing so, provides a remarkably complete picture of cultural, social, economic and religious development during one of the most seminal periods of Chinese history. The Ping Yao region has been settled by humans since Neolithic times. There has been an urban settlement on the site since at least the Western Zhou dynasty, as it was fortified with earthen ramparts during the reign of King Xuan (827-782 BC). With the implementation of the system of prefectures and counties in 221 BC, Ping Yao became the seat of a county administration, and continues to play that role. In 1370, during the reign of the Ming Emperor Hong Wu, the city was greatly extended. It was fortified with a massive new defensive wall and the internal layout was greatly altered, reflecting the strict rules of planning of the Han peoples. The circuit of walls built in the late 14th century measures 6 km in length, the precise dimension for a city of this grade according to Han prescriptions. There are six fortified gates and 72 massive bastions along its length. Since that time it has evolved steadily as a Han city during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It emerged as one of the leading commercial cities in northern China during the 16th century, and retained that status well into the present age. In the second half of the 19th century the banking community of Ping Yao dominated Chinese financial life. Ping Yao City is located at the end of the alluvial fan resulting from the confluence of the Hui Ji and Liu Gen rivers. The area enclosed is 2.25 km2 , comprising six large temple complexes, administrative offices for county and municipal administrations, and other public buildings as well as office buildings. The internal street layout is symmetrical and rectilinear. The main cross-streets are lined with shops built in the 17th-19th centuries which effectively preserve the historic townscape.

Ping Yao contains a number of cultural monuments protected by national, provincial, or county designation. The 10th-century Ten Thousand Buddha Hall of Zhen Guo Temple is a fundamental reference for the study of early Chinese painted statues, as well as for its architecture. The 12th-century Main Hall of the Confucian Temple is a classic example of this form of structure, where large oblique beams are used to bear the main roof timbers, instead of the more conventional technique using brackets. The Shuang Lm Temple, founded in the 6th century, is also renowned for its collection of over 2,000 decorated clay statues dating from the 12th-19th centuries. The Qing Xu Daoist Temple, founded in the 7th century, consists of 10 main buildings. Its Dragon Hall is noteworthy for the rare constructional technique used, a system of suspension beams and pendant columns. A group of more recent temples, include the 19th-century Temple of the Town God, the Auspicious Temple and the Temple to General Guan Yu. The County Administrative Building is a complex that contains elements from the 14th to the 19th centuries. The two-storey wooden City Tower is the highest structure within the historic city. It owes its present appearance to a reconstruction in 1688. From the same period comes the Hui Ji Bridge, built from stone with stone balustrades on either side. The prosperity deriving from trade, and later from the draft banks, resulted in Ping Yao being endowed over the centuries with many high-quality, well built private houses, and these have survived to a large extent. They follow the feudal and hierarchical Han tradition closely, with distinguishing local features. They are built round four sides of an open courtyard, and fall into three main groups. The first are conventional single-storeyed structures in wood and brick, with tiled roofs. Next come the below-ground structures in brick with corridors lined with wood and extended eaves. The third group is two-storey buildings, in which the underground structure is surmounted by a wooden second storey.

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xinyuh (UNESCO Forum) sent from Shanghai (China) on 15.02.2014

138 CHINA - Old Town of Lijiang (UNESCO)

Lijiang is an exceptional ancient town set in a dramatic landscape which represents the harmonious fusion of different cultural traditions to produce an urban landscape of outstanding quality. In the 13th century AD, during the later Southern Song dynasty, the ancestors of the ruling Mu family moved their main centre from Baisha to the foot of the Shizi Mountains to a new town known as Dayechang (later Dayan), where they began building houses surrounded by a city wall and moat. After Azong Aliang submitted in the 1250s to the authority of the Yuan Emperor Hubilie, Dayechang became an administrative centre. The Lijiang Junmin prefecture was established when the region came under Ming rule in 1382. In 1724 the first non-native prefect began building prefectural offices, barracks and educational facilities at the foot of the Jinhong Mountain. Lijiang County was created as part of Lijiang Junmin Prefecture in 1770. The old town of Lijiang is built on a mountain slope running from north-west to south-east, facing a deep river. The northern part of the city was a commercial district. The main streets in this part of the old town radiate from the broad street known as Sifangjie, which has traditionally been the commercial and trading centre of the north-western part of Yunnan Province. On the west side of the Sifangjie is the imposing three-storeyed Kegongfang (Imperial Examination Archway), which is flanked by the Western and Central rivers.

A sluice on the former uses the different levels of the two waterways to wash the streets, a unique form of municipal sanitation. The streets are paved with slabs of a fine-grained red breccia. Water flows from here to the Shuangshi Bridge, where it branches into three tributaries. These subdivide into a network of channels and culverts to supply every house in the town. This water supply is supplemented by many springs and wells within the town itself. A system of watercourses of this complexity necessitates a large number of bridges of varying sizes. There are 354 bridges altogether; they take several forms. It is from these structures that Lijiang derives its name, the 'City of Bridges'. The feature of Lijiang that is most representative of the Naxi minority culture is its wealth of domestic dwellings. The basic timber-framed structure developed into a unique architectural style with the absorption of elements of Han and Zang architecture. Most of the houses are two-storeyed. The chuandoushi wooden frames are walled with adobe on the ground floor and planks on the upper floors; the walls have stone foundation courses. The exteriors of the walls are plastered and lime-washed, and there are often brick panels at the corners. The houses have tiled roofs and an external corridor or veranda. Special attention is paid to the decoration of the houses, especially in the arches over gateways, the screen walls, the external corridors, the doors and windows, the courtyards and the roof beams. Wooden elements are elaborately carved with domestic and cultural elements - pottery, musical instruments, flowers, birds, etc. - and gate arches take several elegant forms. The Lijiang Junmin Prefectural Government Office and Mujia Compound were established in 1368, during the Ming dynasty, in the eastern part of the city. The 286 m long government office was a complex of halls, towers, bridges, terraces, pavilions and palaces. To the north was the official residence, known as the Mujia Compound. It was largely destroyed by war during the Qing dynasty and only the Yizi Pavilion, the Guagbi Tower, and a stone archway survive. The group known as the Yuquan architectural structures is in the Heilongtan Park and date from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Most notable is the Wufeng Tower (1601), moved from the Fugue Temple, of which it formed part, and now designated as one of the major historical sites in Yunnan Province. In addition to the Dayan old town, established in the Ming dynasty, the earlier Baisha quarter, the centre during the preceding Song and Yuan dynasties, survives 8 km to the north.

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cindorchen (UNESCO You Chose) sent from ? (China) on ?

131 CHINA - Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor (WHS)

The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is the largest preserved one in China. It is a unique architectural ensemble whose layout echoes the urban plan of the capital, Xianyang, with the Imperial Palace enclosed by the walls of the city, themselves encircled by other walls. The mausoleum is also associated with an event of universal significance: the first unification of the Chinese territory in a centralized state created by an absolute monarch, in 221 BC. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (Ying Zheng: 221-210 BC) arranged for his burial place long before his accession to the seat of supreme power. When he became king of Qin in 247 BC, Zheng had his geomancers choose a favourable site at the foot of Mount Li. Work was commenced and was carried out more energetically with each new political and military success over his rivals Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi. Following the proclamation of the Empire of Ten Thousand Generations in 221, work at the burial place took on extraordinary dimensions. About 700,000 workers from every province of the empire toiled unceasingly until the death of the emperor in order to construct a subterranean city within a gigantic mound. The place was a veritable scale model of the palace, the empire and the world. Its treasures were safeguarded by automatically triggered weapons designed to thwart tomb robbers. After Qin Shi Huang's death, the principal craftsmen of the hypogeum were walled up on the orders of the second emperor, as a precaution against their betraying their secrets. The mausoleum, 35 km from Xian, is still landmarked by an imposing mound 43 m high. The interior is built within a first square enclosure, with doors in the middle of each of the four walls corresponding to the four cardinal points. This in turn is surrounded by a second rectangular enclosure running north-south.

The mausoleum's superstructures have disappeared and there remains only a wooded knoll resembling a truncated pyramid on a 350 m square base. While sinking a well 1.5 km from the exterior eastern wall of the mausoleum's inner room, three peasants from the small village of Yangeun-West came upon a pit in which there were lifesize terracotta statues of warriors. Excavations were begun immediately. Pit 1 contained a veritable army of 1,087 warriors, the infantry and cavalry corps standing in battle formation with archers protecting the flanks. Today it is estimated that there are a potential 6,000 statues of warriors and horses in that one pit alone, which has floored galleries 230 m long. It is now entirely enclosed by the site museum. Two other pits were discovered just north of Pit 1 and were found to contain similar items - 1,500 warriors, carts and horses in Pit 2, and 68 officers and dignitaries and a cart with four horses in Pit 3. These pits were provisionally backfilled and the objects extracted from them displayed in exhibition rooms flanking the north and south ends of the great hall of the site museum. Other finds were made on the western slope of the mound; these included notably two half-life-size cast bronze quadrigae. According to current estimates, the statue army of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum must have represented the exact number of the imperial guards. Over the past thirteen years, discoveries have revealed the dimensions of the mausoleum, and the site constitutes one of the most fabulous archaeological reserves in the world. Because of their exceptional technical and artistic qualities, the terracotta warriors and horses and the funerary carts in bronze are major works in the history of Chinese sculpture prior to the reign of the Han dynasty. The army of statues also bears unique testimony to the military organization in China at the time of the Warring Kingdoms (475-221 BC) and that of the short-lived Empire of a Thousand Generations (221-210 BC) The direct testimony of the objects found in situ (lances, swords, axes, halberds, bows, arrows, etc.) is evident.

093 CHINA - The city of Wuzhen

Wuzhen is a historic scenic town, part of Tongxiang, located in northern Zhejiang Province, People's Republic of China. It lies within the triangle formed by Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai. Covering an area of 71.19 km² (27.49 sq mi), Wuzhen has a total population of 60,000, of which 12,000 are permanent residents. Located in the centre of the six ancient towns south of Yangtze River, 17 kilometres (11 mi) north of the city of Tongxiang, Wuzhen displays its history through its ancient stone bridges, stone pathways and delicate wood carvings. Wuzhen is divided into six districts. These are: the traditional workshops district, the traditional local-styled dwelling houses district, the traditional culture district, the traditional food and beverage district, the traditional shops and stores district, and the water township customs and life district. Following an east-west-east circuit created by these six districts, visitors can witness reenactment of traditional practices and cultures.

The "Bridge within a Bridge" is a scenic attraction created by two ancient bridges, the Tongji Bridge which crosses the river from east to west and the Renji Bridge running from south to north that joins the former at one end. Either of two bridges can be seen through the arch of the other, hence the name. Having been rebuilt five times, Tongji Bridge is a 28.4 metres (93 ft) and 3.5 metres (11 ft) one-curvature arch bridge, with a span of 11.8 metres (39 ft). Renji Bridge, which has also undergone repairs during its history, has a length of 22.6 metres (74 ft), a width of 2.8 metres (9.2 ft) and a span of 8.5 metres (28 ft). Demonstration in the traditional workshops district display traditional crafts as the printing and dyeing of blue printed fabrics, the primitive techniques of cloth shoe making and tobacco-planing. Visitors may operate the machines to get an idea of how the original work was carried out over 200 years ago. The local houses here are decorated with carved wooden and stone doors and windows.

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Jasmine 1225 (postcrossing) sent from Zhuhai municipality (China) on 30.06.2013

077 CHINA - Snowscape in Ganhaizi

It's very hard to find something about this postcard: I only figured out that this postcard shows the Ganhaizi Area. There is no moving water in Ganhaizi but it is full of charme of snow and ice. Ganhaizi is located in Central China. I think that's all! Sorry!

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Vongola (postcrossing) sent from Chengdu (China) on 18.06.2013

036 CHINA - Guangzhou and Liede Bridge

Guangzhou - known historically as Canton - is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in China. Located on the Pearl River, about 120 km north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port. One of the five National Central Cities, it holds subprovincial administrative status. Guangzhou is the third largest Chinese city. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 12.78 million. In 2008 Guangzhou was identified as a Beta World City by the global city index produced by the GaWC, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

The tower in the background is called the Canton Tower. It's a 600 m-high multi-purpose Chinese observation tower. The tower briefly held the title of tallest tower in the world, replacing the CN Tower, before being surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree in 2011. As a new south-north route in the new CBD of Guangzhou, Liede Bridge plays a significant role to the traffic of the city. The main structure of Liede Bridge also has a beautiful name "the shell of the Pearl River". The 4.3 kilometres bridge connects Haizhu District with Tianhe District and opened in 2009.

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Natalia (postcrossing) sent from Guangzhou (China) on 08.05.2013

025 China - The Great Wall (WHS)

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China in part to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike people or forces. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built between 200-206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall was reconstructed during the Ming Dynasty. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 6259 km (3889 mi).

This section of the wall is called the Gubeikou section of the Great Wall. Gubeikou is a town of Miyun County in northeastern Beijing. The area is one of the important passes of the Great Wall, serving as an ancient chokepoint for travelers between the Northeast and Beijing. As of 2011, it had 4 residential communities and 9 villages under its administration.

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Liu Chi Ho (direct swap) sent from Honkong on 29.08.2013