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Events, activities, and days out for families in Hong Kong
Yes, yes, we all know there’s some sort of big sporting event currently underway in Beijing. If we recall correctly, it has something to do with rings. Regardless, this large party taking place in the northern capital does beg the question: how much do any of us actually know about the real Beijing? And we’re not talking about the shiny new sporting facilities, or those over exposed landmarks the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Summer Palace. We’re talking about history, the real tale of how China’s capital came into being.
Cue illustrated book Through Time: Beijing, in which the reader is taken on a graphically informative journey from the city’s very beginnings on a flat, swampy plain to the present day murky metropolis.
The story begins in the year 16,000BCE at a time when Peking Man lived in encampments under the threat of wild deer and hungry hyenas. Over the next 40 pages, the story takes you through the most momentous events in Beijing’s history: the Manchu, Mongol, and Ming conquests; the founding of the Forbidden City; the arrival of Marco Polo; the Boxer rebellion; the establishment of the Republic; the departure of the last emperor, Puyi; the Cultural Revolution; and finally the Forbidden City museum, as it stands today.
Throughout, the reader is given a grandstand view of the events, with informative illustrations, and text that does not pander to children, such as these remarks on the Mongol conquest: “At first, those who survive the terrible attack rejoice. Soon, though, they envy the dead. Without food, they must eat human flesh to survive!”
However, while Through Time is to be praised for its honest language, it is the historical omissions which are perhaps most glaring. There is no mention of the Japanese occupation during World War II, or the tragic events of June 4, 1989 – both surely momentous enough to warrant coverage here.
Exceptions – and political considerations – aside though, Through Time: Beijing is an excellent graphic guide to the most momentous moments in the history of China’s capital city, and recommended reading for all ages. Simon Ostheimer