What are the scenic spots and interesting things in Washington?

Washington is more of a cultural landscape, with a White House and a memorial hall. This is the quickest way to know the history of a country. There is also Chinatown over there. You can feel the difference between the United States and Chinatown in China.

We stayed at a hotel in Washington called Bentley. The hotel covers a large area, with three two-story buildings, so-called motels. This room is spacious and clean. It is getting late. After washing, we fell asleep.

On September 30, I got up in the morning and the weather was gloomy. Mutu and I wandered around the hotel on rainy days. Surrounded by low-rise buildings, a squirrel jumps on the grass of the hotel, and the chest-high reeds have turned yellow. On the road, there is speeding traffic.

After breakfast, we started our trip to Washington. The downtown area of Washington is called "national mall", also known as national mall. It is also an entity with a cross-shaped central axis in the urban planning and layout of Washington. Our tour is also in this area.

The central axis of the "Great Lawn" is mainly horizontal from east to west, starting from the Capitol in the east and reaching the Lincoln Memorial Hall in the west, with a length of 3.2 kilometers; The north is supplemented by the vertical direction, from the White House in the north to the Jefferson Memorial Hall in the south. The intersection of the two axes is the Washington Monument. If the towering Washington Monument is the coordinate center, then the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and White House are located in the east, west, south and north directions respectively.

The first stop is the Vietnam War Memorial, which is located on the north side of the artificial lake in front of the Lincoln Memorial. There are many big trees on the big lawn. Through the sparse Woods, the towering Washington Monument stands tall. This semi-submersible underground monument is V-shaped and 500 feet long. It is made of black marble and engraved with the name of the deceased 58 132. These names are arranged according to the time of death of each person. This monument was designed by Chinese American designer Lin Ying. There are bouquets presented by people in front of the monument. Only by standing here can you appreciate the anti-war power of the United States.

Walking out of the Vietnam War Memorial Hall, next to it is a statue of three soldiers. It is the product of a compromise plan to quell American criticism and resistance to the monument designed by Lin Ying. However, three US Marines were in high spirits. This is really a good sculpture.

The grass is green, the trees are lush, birds are chirping and dancing in the Woods, squirrels are jumping and running on the grass, and people pick up cameras to photograph the tranquility of the city.

Not far from the Vietnam War Memorial Hall is the Lincoln Memorial Hall, located at the western end of Washington National Lawn. This is an ancient Greek temple building made of granite and marble, which was built in memory of abraham lincoln, the first 16 president of the United States. During the American Civil War, he defeated the separatist forces in the south, liberated slaves and safeguarded national unity, and was respected by generations.

The marble statue of Lincoln was placed in the center of the memorial hall. He put his hands on both sides of the armrest of the chair and looked solemn. There is an inscription above the statue-"Lincoln will live in the hearts of the people forever".

There is a huge artificial lake between the memorial hall and the Washington Monument. Standing on the steps of the memorial hall, the reflection of the Washington Monument is vivid. Through the monument, in the distance, there are towering parliament buildings and white buildings on low hills.

The Han tomb is in the south of the artificial lake. To be precise, it is a small memorial park. It consists of three parts, one of which is a group of 19 life-size sculptures of American soldiers. They scattered in a grassy clearing in a straggler formation "looking for progress".

The second part is a black granite memorial wall with many soldiers' heads etched on it, which is copied and carved according to the real photos of American soldiers in the Korean War news photos.

The third part is also a group of black marbles, one of which reads in Chinese: "Our country is proud of its children. They answered the call to defend a country and people they had never seen before. Others recorded the deaths of 54,246 American soldiers, the disappearance of 628,833 United Nations soldiers, and so on.

We drove around the White House and across the lawn outside it. The tall image of the Washington Monument still exists.

Security measures in the White House are getting stricter. When we 1998 come in, we can visit. I remember I bought a postcard of the White House, stamped it with the postmark of the White House, and sent it back to my daughter. Now there are three steps, one post and five posts outside the railing, and the surrounding roads are all roadblocks. Most tourists take pictures across the street. We detoured from the distant intersection and shot with telephoto through the railing.

The last stop in Washington is the Capitol. Last time we came to America, we also went in to visit. This time, don't say anything, we don't even have a chance to go in. The travel agency arranged a "bird's eye view" from the distance opposite the artificial lake. It is hard to imagine that travel agencies will use "overlooking" instead of traveling. Some places even "look down from the car" and take pictures through the window glass. Really "China characteristics"!

Washington, DC

Let's take a map of Washington to get a general idea.

First of all, a little more basic knowledge of popular science. There are two Washington States in the United States, one is in the northwest corner, and the other is the well-known Seattle, where it has been raining. Yes, Beijing meets Seattle, and the most famous ones are Starbucks and Microsoft. Seattle people like coffee very much. They always claim to have the best coffee in the world. This is my impression of Seattle. The latest American drama "izombie" is set in Seattle. Another Washington is the capital of the United States. Americans like to call Washington DC or DC·DC.

We live in Yinquan, Yinquan, on the border between the north and Washington. It is said that there is NOAA's office building nearby. The office of NASA is also in Washington, but in the south. I have been to several cities in North America, not many, but most of them have rivers, and the scenery is beautiful, which adds a lot of aura to the cities. It takes about 30 minutes to drive from our conference hotel to the White House. Although the subway is inconvenient to drive, it is also a feasible choice.

Looking at the shape of DC on the map, we can also see that this square city was artificially planned, rather than slowly developed by historical colonists. In DC, most north-south streets are named after numbers, starting from First Street. East-west streets are named by letters, starting with a street. The White House is located at 15 Street and 17 Street between H Street and Constitution Avenue. In addition to the north-south vertical roads, there are also some oblique roads, most of which are named after American States. Because of these inclined roads, many circles are formed in DC. For example, we went to Dupont roundabout, where ten roads meet. In the middle of the circle, there is a fountain with a statue of the Greek goddess on it. Our dear Massachusetts Avenue is also in this circle.

According to Wikipedia, the urban planning of Washington was completed earlier, so the road is very narrow. After the cars on both sides stopped, there was only one car in the middle of the community. But strangely, these roads are two-way lanes, so if two cars meet on the road, one of them can only find an empty parking space to stop and avoid. Fortunately, the quality of people in Beijing is relatively high and there is no dispute. On a road as wide as Boston, either one-way parking or one-way parking is allowed, and there is no two-way lane phenomenon, so it is quite novel to see this time.

In addition, because the center of Washington is full of government units and enterprises, there are almost no houses for people to live in, so most people work in the city during the day and go home outside the city at night. Even many years ago, downtown Washington was empty at night. This has also aggravated the congestion in this city. Go to town for an hour or two every morning and go out of town in the afternoon. Single-center cities are prone to congestion, but multi-center cities like Los Angeles, where pizza is everywhere, also have many problems. Because the city is too scattered and the public transportation system is inconvenient, it is almost impossible to walk without a car. If you miss a bus, you have to wait at least an hour to wait for the next one. This is unimaginable for me who lives in the iron lion tomb. Our No.22 bus runs almost every 2 minutes, haha ~

Maps of the White House and nearby famous scenic spots.

Of course, the White House is the most famous scenic spot in Washington. I have been there once in winter, and I can only see it from a distance. Professor Myneni told us that if we want to see the White House, the nearest one is actually the back door. From the map, too. It is true that the back door has a better view. Just south of the White House, there is the Washington Monument. The long artificial lake on the west side of the monument is a reflection pool. At the end of the reflection pool is the Lincoln Memorial Hall, which contains Lincoln's huge marble sculpture. There are dozens of museums on the east side of the Washington Monument, all of which are free. The most famous is the American Air and Space Museum. There are many kinds of fighters and capsules in the exhibition hall, which are suitable for friends with children to visit. It's a pity that I'm not a military fan, so I can only take a cursory look. The US Capitol is in the east, overlooking the Lincoln Memorial. It's a pity that it's being repaired every time I come. I have to complain that the work efficiency of Americans (it is said that all construction workers are Mexican) is really too low.

If you only go to Washington for one day, the green part of the above picture is enough. Almost all the top attractions in Washington are in this area, which Americans call national mall and national mall. Most of the scenic spots are open. If you want to visit the White House and the Pentagon, most of them can make an appointment online in advance, which takes more than two weeks in advance, so I haven't been there yet. In addition, a large number of cherry trees are planted on both sides of the reflection pool. Every April, when cherry blossoms are in full bloom, the front of Lincoln Memorial Hall is also beautiful. Unfortunately, they have not been seen yet. The following is a picture stolen from a classmate. Feel it.

Cherry blossoms in front of the Jefferson Memorial.

Because I study geography, I always unconsciously observe the planning and road construction of a city. As we all know, Beijing's traffic is a big problem, and Beijing is an old city with narrow and old roads, which is not convenient for expansion. Opening blocks may be a solution, but the narrow hutongs in 49 cities can't be opened to traffic at all and still can't solve the traffic jam problem. It may be a good idea to change the existing road into a one-way street, but for China people who have no one-way street habit, it is a painful process to change their habits.