Page 103 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Beijing

Greater Beijing ❮❮ 101

National Aquatics
8 GREEN BEIJING
Center (Water Cube)
This Olympic venue proves there
is life after the Games – today, the Summer
Water Cube is a popular water park, Temple of Palace
Brilliance
and it is earmarked to host the 2022 Xiang TAXI Longevity
Shan
Winter Games’ curling events. In this Hill BO AT
collaboration between Chinese and South Lake Island
Seventeen-
Australian architects, China drew Fragrant Sculpting In Time Arch Bridge
from the classical mythology Hills Hotel
tradition of a square earth and round
heaven, symbolized here by the MORNING
angled building and the circular
stadium. The Australians designed Be at the East Gate (Dong Men) of
the bubbles, representing soap the Summer Palace (see pp28–9)
lather’s natural pattern (see p44). for 8:30am to beat both the heat
(if you are visiting in summer) and
the crowds. Make your way along
the north shore of Kunming Lake
via the Long Corridor and ascend
Longevity Hill. Descend again
to the Marble Boat and take a
pleasure cruiser across the lake
to South Lake Island. Cross back
to the mainland via the supremely
elegant Seventeen-Arch Bridge;
from here it’s a short walk north
to exit where you came in at the
East Gate. In the car park, pick up
a taxi and instruct the driver to
take you to Xiang Shan Gongyuan,
Science and Technology Museum otherwise known as Fragrant
Design: rename Xiang Shan
Hills Park (see p99). Before you
Science and Technology
9 enter, Sculpting In Time is a café
Museum
near the East Gate that does good
MAP E1 • 1 Beisanhuan Zhong Lu salads, pastas, and pizza.
• 6237 1177 • Subway: Beitucheng
• Open 9am–4:30pm Tue–Sat • Adm AFTERNOON
• www.cstm.org.cn From the park’s East Gate, turn
Exhibits begin with ancient science, right for the Temple of Brilliance,
highlighting China’s “technological built in 1780 and ransacked by
pre-eminence in history.” The Western troops in 1860 and 1900.
technology comes up to date with Close by is the Liuli Pagoda, with
Chinese space capsules, robots, and bells hanging from its eaves that
an Astro-vision Theater incorporating chime in the breeze. Continue
north to pass between two small
state-of-the-art cinematography. round lakes linked by a small
hump-backed bridge – the whole
National Olympic
0 known as the Spectacles Lakes.
Stadium (Bird’s Nest)
Beyond is a chairlift that takes
Inspired by Chinese ceramics, the you up to the top of the “Fragrant
design of interlocking steel beams Hill.” Zigzag back down past
was initially supporting a retractable many more pavilions to arrive
roof. This was later removed, but what at the Fragrant Hills Hotel,
designed by Chinese-American
remains is still a stunning structure. architect I. M. Pei, best known
Since 2008, the Bird’s Nest has for his glass pyramid at the
hosted everything from auto-racing Louvre in Paris and the Suzhou
and soccer matches to pop concerts Museum near Shanghai.
and a winter carnival (see p44).
See map on pp98–9
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