Sunday, November 22, 2009

Guangzhou :Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall




Guangzhou Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is really a magnificent building in the shape of octangle. It is not only one of the symbolic constructions in Guangzhou with its majestic appearance and the infused rich Chinese national color, but also an important place for large scale meeting and performance.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is built in order to commemorate the contributions of Sun Zhongshan, the great predecessor of Chinese revolution for democracy. It is a memorial construction donated by the people in Guangzhou and the overseas Chinese and is listed as one of the first class cultural relics in Guangdong Province. Designed by the famous Chinese architect, Mr. Lu Yanzhi, the construction started in 1929 and finished in October of 1931.

Before the liberation, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall has already been badly damaged due to the lack of attention. After the liberation, our government has particularly appropriated some funds for several times to repair the memorial hall. Finally, in 1998, there appeared the completely new memorial hall after the careful repair. The memorial hall and the courtyard together cover an area of 62,000 square meters with the 6,600-square-meter's major building with a framework of steel work and reinforced concrete.

In the front of the memorial hall, there erects the statue of Mr. Sun Zhongshan. And there hangs a golden slab with four Chinese characters of "Tian Xia Wei Gong" written by Sun Yat-sen himself above the front door of the memorial hall. With the statue and the slab reflecting and corresponding to each other, there forms a magnificent scene which reminds people of the brilliant life experience of the great man.

The central coping of the octagon pavilion of the Zhongshan Memorial Hall is surrounded by the four decorating double eaves from the front, back, left, and right sides of it. The whole construction is majestic, solemn and rich in Chinese national culture. Inside the memorial hall, there are tall and straight ancient but precious trees and cloud pillars with lifelike cranes on them, presenting a magnificent scene. Around the memorial hall, yellow walls and red pillars decorated by blue glazed tiles, are shining in the sun, showing the resplendence and solemnity. Back of the memorial hall, there is the Zhongshan Monument erecting on the top of Yuexiu Mountain. The monument is so remarkable and stately that it seems to go clean through the sky. The audience house inside the memorial hall, with a domed roof which is a huge embedded sprung roof made of glasses that has no supporting pillars to impair the view but rarely produces echoes, is an outstanding construction among world-famous architecture.

Travel Tips

There are wheel chairs for the disabled and special passage for wheel chairs inside the memorial hall. At the same time, there are also crutches for aged people and baby carriages and toys for children.

Metro: Line 2 ,stop at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Station

Temple of The Six Banyan Trees

Some of the buildings in Guangzhou are incredibley old, most notable of which are the Temple Of The Six Banyan Trees and Guangxiao Temple, some of the oldest standing structures in the whole of China. Other buildings have been demolished and others added over the ages, creating a wonderful blend of architecture.

Guangzhou is under constant, systematic development. If you look at a map, the centre of the city has developed well; a mix of the best of old and new with a few parks thrown in for good measure. Leaving this area you'll find countless apartment blocks and slums, thrown up over the last 50 or so years.


Citic Plaza

Moving further east is the modern, grid-based and aptly named 'New Town' with buildings such as The CITIC Plaza. Where the slums meet this area you'll find piles of rubble. The non-descript parts of the city are gradually being raised to the ground and rebuilt on an astonishing scale. Exactly where all the impoverished slum-dwellers will live when their homes are knocked down and replaced with glass skyscrapers is anyone’s guess. New Town has plenty of residential blocks but clearly not enough to provide shelter for everyone.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Guangzhou, so please take a look at my tips and I hope that they contribute to you deciding to pay your own visit...

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