Yellow Tiles and Vermeil Walls

The imperial palaces in Beijing are graced with yellow-glazed tiles and vermeil walls because they looked pleasant and reflected the wealth, dignity and authority of the emperors. The tiles are generally glazed yellow, green, blue and black. Yellow-glazed tiles for the exclusive use of roofs of palaces, mausoleums, gardens, temples and other imperial structures. Yellow was chosen as the royal color and a symbol of dignity because in the 'five elements' theory (gold, wood. water, fire and earth), yellow earth is in the center of universe. In the imperial garden, such as, the Summer Palace, however, roofs are covered with tiles of different colors.

Only the houses in which the emperor lived or administered state affairs are covered with yellow-glazed roofs, while the houses for officials feature green-glazed roofs, and scenic buildings and commoners' dwellings are covered with black-glazed tiles. However, non-imperial buildings sometimes also featured yellow-glazed roofs, such as the Confucian Temple and the Lord Guan's Temple, because of the fact that the Chinese emperors had worshiped Confucius as Duke for the Propagation of Culture and the Qing emperors decorated Lord Guan as 'Emperor Guan'.

All the buildings in the Imperial Palace are sup­posed to have their roofs covered with yellow-glazed tiles. The exception, however, is the national library (Chamber of Literary Profundity), whose roof is deco­rated with black-glazed tiles because black is the color of water. As the library is prone to fire hazard, the use of black tiles was meant to subdue fire with water. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in the Temple of Heaven is covered with a blue-tiled roof to symbolize the color of the sky. It is clear that the colors adopted for the Chinese ancient structures have symbolic meanings.

The appeal of the yellow-glazed roofs is supplemented with the vermilion (darkish red) color of the walls. By Chinese tradition red is the color for festivities, and that is why even today the lanterns and streamers used during holidays and festivals are mostly red in color. The imperial buildings are decorated with yellow tiles and vermilion walls to imply the emperor's wish for happiness. Many Buddhist temples in this country also featured yellow-glazed roofs and vermilion walls with the mandate of the royal family. During the Ming and Qing, yellow-glazed tiles could be used for imperial palaces, the mausoleums for emperors and those temples and altars built in compliance with the order of the emperors. Those who violated the rule could be sentenced to death.

The Grand Canal, which cuts a 2,700­kilometer-long course from Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the south, is extolled as a great water conservancy project of ancient China. It is also one of the longest of its kind in the world. It took three major engineering campaigns to bring the canal to its present shape:

First, the predecessor to the canal was the 150-kilometer-long Hangou Ditch dug near present-day Yangzhou in 485 B.C. (towards the end of the Spring and Autumn Period) in the State of Wu to link the Yangtze with the Huai River.

Second, during 1th-6th year (605-610 A.D.) of the Dayi reign of the Sui Dynasty, a canal 2,700 kilometers in length and 30-70 meters in width- known as the 'Sui Emperor Yangdi's South-North Grand Canal'- was dug with the capital city of Luoyang in the middle to connect the Haihe, Yellow, Huai, Yangtze, and Qiantang rivers into a unified water shipping network.

Third, during the Yuan Dynasty (1206­1368), Beijing became the northern terminal of a 1,794-kilometer-long canal that flows all the way to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province by way of Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces. This canal, known in history as the 'Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal', was actually 900 kilometers shorter than its Sui -dynasty counterpart, hence the difference between the South-North Grand Canal and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

In 1949 the Chinese government conducted a large-scale refurbishment of the Grand Canal. Some of the sections were widened or deepened, some of the zigzagging sections were straightened out, and a number of water conservancy and ship locks were added. Today, quite a few sections of this canal are large enough to accommodate large shipping fleets over 1,000 tons in capacity. The canal has also provided ample irrigation water for the farmlands on both sides. Cruise tours have been opened along the section that connects Hangzhou, Suzhou and Wuxi, to the delight of travelers from at home and abroad.