Billy's Cities

Explore the great cities of the world!

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China, A Little History, Part 8

First Sino-Japanese War

Part of Beijing's extensive canal system, which links areas throughout Beijing to the sea via Tianjin. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan was able to create an offshore choke-point, cutting off Beijing's maritime access. Summer Palace, Beijing, China, Asia.
Part of Beijing’s extensive canal system (seen here near the Summer Palace), which links areas throughout Beijing to the sea via Tianjin. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan was able to create an offshore choke-point, cutting off Beijing’s maritime access.

During the second half of the 19th century, while China was reluctantly opening and modernizing, Japan’s modernization was going from zero to sixty.  (That’s zero to 100, if you’re using the metric system.)  Moving up in the world, the Japanese were eagerly looking beyond their island shores.  They particularly turned their eye towards very close-by, resource-rich Korea, which had been under under China’s sphere of influence for centuries.  Both [Read more…]

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Fun With Chinese

Imperial inscriptions in Chinese characters above and beside the Dragon Throne in the Forbidden City's Hall of Supreme Harmony. Forbidden City, Beijing, China, Asia.
Imperial inscriptions in Chinese characters above and beside the Dragon Throne in the Forbidden City’s Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Here are some fun (fascinating, actually) facts about China and Chinese.

Middle Kingdom

Ever heard of China referred to as “the Middle Kingdom”?  I had heard this but didn’t really understand what it meant.  It turns out, the explanation is surprisingly simple.  As I started to understand as I was planning my trip, the [Read more…]

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China, A Little History, Part 7

Second Opium War

The Tower of Buddhist Incense at the Summer Palace in Beijing. Like much of the Palace, it was destroyed by Anglo-French forces during the Second Opium War and subsequently rebuilt. Summer Palace, Beijing, China, Asia.
The Tower of Buddhist Incense at the Summer Palace in Beijing. Like much of the Palace, it was destroyed by Anglo-French forces during the Second Opium War and subsequently rebuilt.

15 years after winning the First Opium War, the British were growing antsy.  They wanted even more favorable trade conditions, including the definitive legalization of the opium trade, as well as the regulation of the coolie trade.  (Coolies were Chinese indentured servants—in effect, legal slaves—shipped off by the British to outlying spots of the British Empire and to Latin America.)  The British also believed that the Chinese were not keeping up with the [Read more…]

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China 2015, Day 6: Beijing, Day 1, Part 2

Central Beijing:  Legation Quarter, Dazhalan, Tiananmen Square (Reprise), and Donghuamen Night Market

In the early afternoon, I left the Forbidden City through the northern Gate of Divine Prowess knowing that it would be incredibly hard to top that experience.  Nonetheless, I still had a whole lot of Beijing to [Read more…]