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BEIJING:
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HISTORY
The earliest recorded settlement in the area
dates back to 1000 BC. It was a trading town with
tribes from several regions. In the Warring
States Period (453-221 BC), it was the capital of
Yan Kingdom. In the Liao Dynasty (916-1125 AD) it
was named Yanjing. In 1215 AD, Mongol warrior
Genghis Khan descended from the north to the
capital and slaughtered everything in sight and
set it on fire. Khan rebuilt the city, and named
it Dadu (Great Capital). They constructed an
extensive public works of roads, a Grand Canal, a
new palace, parks, artificial lakes and hills.
The Mongol’s vast empire stretched from the
Far East Asia to Europe; with the east to west
contact beginning the culture exchange. Chinese
printing techniques, porcelain production and
playing cards etc. were introduced to Europe, and
many European food crops were also brought to
China. The Venetian Marco Polo arrived in Beijing
at this time and brought astounding stories back
to the people in Europe.
Mongols gradually converted to the sedentary
Chinese way of life, and lost their effectiveness
of military skills. Repeated natural disasters
also weakened the government’s control. In
1368, a Han Buddhist monk named Zhu Yuan-zhang
led an uprising to release the Han Chinese from
the oppression. He overpowered and chased out the
Mongols, and established the Ming Dynasty. The
city was rechristened as Beiping (Northern
Peace), Zhu’s grandson Yong-lee renamed it
Beijing (Northern Capital). Under Emperor
Yong-lee, the Ming naval fleet was created. Each
ship could carry up to 500 men. The fleet made
seven expeditions (1405-1433 AD) to India, the
Persian Gulf, and all the way to the east coast
of Africa. The Great Wall was also redesigned and
refurbished at the same time.
Due to the Emperor being considered the "Son
of Heaven", the emperor’s family needed
a sacred and glorious place to live in to prevent
"commoner’s eyes". In 1406, the
construction of the Forbidden City and Tiantan
(Temple of Heaven) began, with 200,000 laborers,
75 buildings and 9,999 rooms (the number of nine
in Chinese symbolized longevity, and all the
rooms are still standing today) were built. The
emperor’s home was painted the highest noble
color - purple, and it meant the center of the
universe (the robe Jesus wore before His
Crucifixion was in purple). A great culture has
developed throughout the Ming Dynasty, and the
best-known Chinese novels were written (still in
text book as curriculum in China). The novels
were divided by chapters, and this made it easier
for a storyteller on the street to collect
donations from the audiences. The woodcuts and
block-printings also flourished. Encyclopedias
including subjects such as geography, music,
culture, medicine and dictionaries were
established. Consequently, the economy, arts,
politics, the harmony and the prosperity of the
society created a belief among Chinese that they
had achieved the zenith of civilization on earth
and that nothing foreign was welcome.
The internal power struggles among the eunuchs
and the nobility under the child emperors, led to
the downfall of the Ming Dynasty. Manchus were
northern nomads and not Han Chinese; they were
the tribes that the Great Wall was built to
prevent from attacking the Capital of the Middle
Kingdom. In late 17th century, Manchu tribes
unified the Manchuria, and approached the
northern territory. A Northern Ming Commander at
the Great Wall invited the Manchu force’s
assistance to thwart a peasant uprising. Once
they passed through the gate of "Tianxia
Diyi Guan" (First Gate Under Heaven) in
1644, there was no return, Manchu forces fought
their battles all the way down to Beijing, and it
was the end of the Ming Dynasty. Manchus
established the Qing Dynasty, and the Manchu
officials enforced an edict requiring all Han
Chinese men to wear their braided hair in the
back, which was looked down upon by the Han
people. Many lost their lives by resisting the
law. Most of the Qing governmental policies
followed those of Ming Dynasty, except the Manchu
race was now in a dominant position and
intermarriage with the Han Chinese was banned.
Under Qing rule, arts continued to flourish, many
great novels and literature were born, "The
Dream of Red mansions", "The Story of
the Stone" and "Peach Blossom Fan"
etc. were written. The city of Beijing expanded
and renovated, the Summer Palace, pagodas, and
many other magnificent structures were built.
Chinese mentality of complacency and the
pervasive view of achieving the zenith of
civilization on earth lasted till the beginning
of the 20th century. The nobility were especially
focused on being confined inside the little world
of the Forbidden City, where they lost contact
with reality. China considered Westerners as
"Nomadic barbarians" because the
Middle-Kingdom was unable to evaluate the
development of approaching new challenges. It was
awakened only when the Western Powers of
"Tran-Jen-Pow-Lee" (Iron ships with
powerful guns) came knocking at China’s
seaports. The beautiful Summer Palace was burnt
down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces in 1860.
Later, Empress Dowager Cixi embezzled the funds
budgeted for a modern Imperial Naval fleet, and
used it to rebuild a new Summer Palace call
"Yi-Hey-Yuan" (Garden of Natured
Harmony) in 1888. Inside the Summer Palace, there
was the Garden of Harmonious Interests, known as
the Garden within a Garden, The Long Gallery that
stretched 728 meters (2400 feet) with 8000
paintings of all subjects, the Hall of the Sea of
Wisdom, built without a single beam or column in
its structure, and the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, a
150 meter long bridge, decorated with 544 marble
sculpture lions. Corridors with so many twists
and turns and with different styles connect the
pavilions, halls, bridges and gardens. In the
Interest of Water, the fall of the water created
a melodious sound effect in the garden. One of
Cixi’s favorites was fishing, and in order
to please this bad-tempered and impatient lady,
the devoted eunuchs would dive into the water and
put live fish on her hook. And this was part of
the reason why she enjoyed fishing: because it
was inevitable for her to something! In 1900,
Eight Allied Foreign Forces attacked Beijing,
plundered the Summer Palace again, leaving fires
that destroyed all the buildings except one. Cixi
returned in 1903 and started full-scale
restoration as we see today.
The armed invasions of China by foreign
capitalism, forced Qing Dynasty to sign a series
of more than 1800 unequal treaties in less than a
hundred years, and China was reduced to
semi-colonial territory. The Revolution in 1911,
ended in the Han Chinese people overthrowing the
268 years of Qing imperial dynasty, and it marked
the beginning of the Republic of China.
CULTURE
Chinese cuisine is divided into four major
regions: Northern, Eastern, Western and Southern.
They trace back not only from geographical and
climatic differences, but also from cultural and
historical origins. When Mongols attacked China
in 12th century, both the imperial court and the
mass population moved south. The restaurant
businesses were built along the escape routes and
areas. The regional tastes came to restaurants
from far away lands to please the bureaucrats,
merchants and common people. Mongols charged the
battles with fast moving horses, they would
quickly dismount and place the iron shields on
the hot coals as barbecues to cook wild
vegetables and meat from captured animals. They
also used their helmets as pots. The Mongolian
Barbecue eventually became their famous culinary
contribution. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
the restaurant industry continued to prosper. Ice
blocks were cut from northern rivers in the
winter and stored in the deep caves for summer
use, allowing varieties of food to be used out of
the season. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) provided
significant development in Chinese cuisine; the
imperial court kitchens in the Forbidden City
hired 5000 cooks to research and refine the
delicacies to satisfy generations of
Emperors’ demanding appetites. Through the
years many highly guarded mixtures of
ingredients, formula, and cooking techniques
leaked from the court to the street markets.
Today, we are benefited by these
"Gong-tin-mi-fun" (Imperial court
secrets) and are able to sample many of the
gastronomes in the Chinese restaurants.
OUR MISSION
The first Summer Palace "Yuan-Ming
Yuan" (Perfection and Brightness Garden)
originated in the 12th century; Qing Emperor
Qianlong redeveloped it and used the Jesuits as
architects to merge the European style palace
into its interlocking gardens. Many times,
Emperor Qianlong dressed as a common citizen and
secretly toured central and southern China with
his two legendary martial art loaded bodyguards.
He saw many architectural arts and gardens he
enjoyed and he came back and built similar
gardens in the Summer Palace regardless of the
cost and natural terrain. The Garden of Clear
Ripples cost 4.48 million taels (1.333 ounces per
tael) of silver in 1750, to deepen the Kunming
Lake and they hired 100,000 laborers. Emperor
Qianlong once wrote a poem, "…a
pavilion a path, a pace a scene, the scene
changes with each pace, and each pace is of great
interests". The Summer Palace turned out to
be the most beautiful palace that human eyes had
ever beheld. It was recorded "Embroidered
hangings of enormous value, altar furniture
plated with gold, things which, apart from their
value, were full of interest with beauty and
rarity…" "Never did an ancient
town exhibit an agglomerate of buildings with
forms so varies, and contents so rare. Never has
any European capital been able to boast a
nomenclature so strangely fantastic" (Jules
Verne 1883). Unfortunately, in the Second Opium
War (1860), the British and French troops arrived
at the Palace, looted some of its contents and
set fire burning these over 800 years’
accumulation of glandular masterpieces. "A
pang of sorrow seizes upon you, you cannot help
it, no eye will ever again gaze upon those
buildings which have been doubtless the
admiration of ages, records of by-gone skill and
taste, of which the world contains not the like.
You have seen them once and for ever, they are
dead and gone, and man cannot reproduce
them" (Rev. R.J. L. McGhee 1860 (served with
the British expeditionary force to China)).
So as "Yuan-Ming Yuan" is gone and
never to be seen again, same as all the wealth of
this world comes and goes like a shadow appeared
and disappeared without a sound or a trace. We
were born with two empty hands and will leave
this world the same way, so what is the eternal
value that we should hold on to?
In the Summer Palace, there were 5 bridges within
the "Interest of Bridge", the most
famous one was "Know-the-Fish Bridge",
and it was the location of two philosophers that
argued about their view of life 2500 years ago.
Zhuang Zi claimed: "Look, how happy the fish
are!"
Hui Zi replied: "You are not a fish, how do
you know?"
Zhuang Zi answered: "You are not me, how do
you know what I know?"
Only people who have Jesus in their heart
experience the new life and hope that we know. It
is time for us to come and share with them.
Join us in Beijing this summer!
Full country name: People's Republic of China
Area: 9,596,960 sq km (mainland)
Population: 1.2 billion (mainland)
Capital city: Beijing (pop 12.6 million)
People: Han Chinese, plus Mongol, Zhuang, Manchu
and Uighur minorities
Languages: Putonghua (Beijing Mandarin dialect)
Religion: Officially atheist; Confucianism,
Buddhism, Taoism, Muslim (14 million), Christian
Government: Communist republic
Head of State: Jiang Zemin
GDP: US$1.0 trillion
GDP per head: US$860
Growth rate: 7.8%
Inflation: 2.8%
Major industries: Iron, steel, coal, machinery,
textiles
Major trading partners: USA, Japan, Germany,
South Korea
• Basic Chinese language will be taught by
our Spanish teacher; the course will be included
in the total 20 hours of missions training
• You may have a tour of the Great Wall, the
vicinity of Beijing and other cities after the
project, and reschedule your airline ticket with
the carrier from Beijing to Los Angeles/San
Francisco/Seattle/New York; the International
Travel Insurance will cover three more weeks of
your traveling time. Our sponsoring groups and
affiliated personnel would be happy to assist you
for information or any special needs.
Source: Lonely Planet & Beijing
LONG
TERM MISSION
Would you spend two years to serve the Lord in
Beijing?
Say
yes if you are ready to serve our Lord Jesus
Christ, and dedicate your talents and energy
toward His plan for you. Overseas Summer Missions
is a uniquely organized, worldwide network
ministry; and you can be a part of our community.
Join our strategic planning and visions to bring
people to the Kingdom of God. It will not only be
an exciting and rewarding experience, but above
all, its fruits will last for eternity.
We are seeking full-time staff that have a love
for God and sincere desire to serve Him, and to
be assigned to Beijing, with a minimum of 2 years
commitment. If you have an available heart,
please pray for God’s will for you to take
these challenges and opportunities to serve
overseas, and because of your effort, thousands
of lives will be changed.
"
you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind" Matthew 22:37
We are currently accepting applications for
full-time staff. If you are considering joining
our ministry, please contact Frank Holiday at frank@OSMusa.org
for more information regarding qualifications,
missions and fund raisings.
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