Ancient quarries of Beijing

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Beijing is not a popular tourist destination. An ordinary metropolis with a minimum of historical sites. And those look like they were built yesterday. I do not exclude that most of them are just a remake. Also, the Chinese themselves, who in 95% of the common population do not even know 10 words of English, not to mention Russian. Not interesting, as they say. But here's what I noticed …

Forbidden City or Palace of the Emperor The largest palace complex in the world (961 x 753 meters, 720 thousand square meters, 980 buildings). From 1420 to 1912; Throughout this time, it served as both the residence of the emperors and their family members, and the ceremonial and political center of the Chinese government. From here, the Celestial Empire was ruled by 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Pay attention to the canals that surround the ancient cities of modern Beijing. But more about them below.

The weather was sunny, but with a haze.

The canal surrounding the palace.

But there was no desire to inspect these newly-made hectares, so it was decided to look at Beijing and the Forbidden City from the height of the Jinshan hill, which is located nearby in the Jingshan park of the same name. The park covers an area of over 230,000 m² and is located north of the Forbidden City on the central axis of Beijing. Originally an imperial garden, it is now a public park. Wikipedia says that Mount Jinshan is an artificial hill 45, 7 meters high was built by Yong-le during the Ming Dynasty entirely from the soil dug while digging ditches around the imperial palace. Jingshan consists of five separate hills (more on that below), at the top of each of them there is a Chinese-style pavilion-palace. These pavilions were often used by officials of the imperial retinue for gathering as well as for recreation.

What immediately catches your eye is these stone masses:

The Chinese stacked them in piles on mortar, created artificial rocks. But it feels like these slabs used to line the hillsides.

There are many of them on the slopes of the hill. It doesn't look like they were all brought in for compositions.

Layered structure. In color and appearance - like concrete

Paste, if you apply the terminology from previous articles on this topic.

But if the hill is filled, then where are these stone masses from here, and such multilevel layering?

There is just like concrete - with filler, interspersed with a different breed

Bedding

Some layers are like marble

It was like dough

Porous structure in some

There are several blocks of quartzite at the entrance

Either eroded or originally formed.

On the reverse side of the block, there are layers on quartzite. Was the lump a dough too?

A fresh bench in Jinshan Park caught my eye. The Chinese have a lot of places with swastika script. What conclusion did I draw on the spot? This hill is most likely not handmade. Why are there so many stone masses on its slopes that resemble concrete? If they had been broken out while digging a canal around the palace, they would have been allowed to go to construction blocks. More than one palace could be built from them. It turns out there is another hill nearby. It is visible from Jinshan Hill:

This is a separate territory of the park with a separate entrance and payment. Time did not dispose to visit him, as it turned out, it was bad that he did not get there. There is a reservoir that looks very much like a quarry.

On the slopes of this hill, there are all the same stone slabs

This hill in google maps with a pond that looks like a quarry

There are two more reservoirs to the south. The southernmost - also with a round island

Of course, it can be argued that these reservoirs were dug up as fortifications to protect the emperor's palace on a tiny island or hill. But for this it is enough to dig a channel around, and not a huge quarry! And these are not the only examples in Beijing. To the northwest of the historic center there is a whole complex of quarries and dump hills:

Map link

From the ground it all looks like a lake

A kilometer to the east. Also a complex of pits and lakes. Everything is clearly artificial. And not modern. At least tens of years.

Another pond with ragged outlines like a quarry. Map link

West of the historic center. Map link

And from the ground it is an ordinary pond.

Another pond pit

It can be assumed that many of these pits were dug during the construction of the city and roads. Soviet builders often did this. And such flooded quarries are now lakes. But the Chinese themselves attribute the central reservoirs to the depths of their history. A separate topic is channels in Beijing, and in China as well.

Now they are all ennobled and nothing reminds of the scale of their construction. It is possible that these are waterways for transporting the mined

In Beijing, they surround the territory of the old city (diagram at the top of the article) and diverge to the sides.

About the Great Chinese Canal was here

For comparison, here are some old photos of Beijing:

More recently, it was essentially a village

1900

Beijing 1947 The hill and reservoir of the central part were already (in the background). By the way, the hill is not covered with forest everywhere.

Larger photo

Beijing 1947 - a big village. A source

As you can see, reservoirs and hills are something more ancient in Beijing than the time of large construction projects. I do not exclude that Beijing was founded as a settlement of miners. This place is the foothills, there must have been some kind of minerals.

In the Beijing area, there are deposits of iron ore and kaolin - clay for the aluminum industry.