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Home > Diaries > 2016 > 531 |
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WITH the morning free before my first tour briefing and catching an overnight train east to Dandong, I decided to explore some of the inner city of Beijing. I discovered a stone tower that had once functioned as Beijing's astronomical observatory. At the top of the tower stood a number of large metal objects used for monitoring the heavens for both scientific astronomy and for Chinese astrology. Modern times have rendered the location completely unsuitable for an observatory. The city's population of 22 million is almost the same as the whole of Australia. The country's population is a staggering 1.4 billion people. The very thick smog haze pervading the city makes the faint sun glow a soft sickly orange all day long and the stars of the night are all but invisible from here. Still the intruments remain on this tower as a legacy of the scientific advances of the 1440s during the Ming dynasty. Blog from today: |
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