{"id":441779,"date":"2018-02-16T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=83d3f0e2a5d0004e2680e96e64ada8af"},"modified":"2018-02-16T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T09:00:00","slug":"beijing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=441779","title":{"rendered":"Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2018\/02\/beijing\/17376873-1-eng-GB\/Beijing_small.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"96\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nToday, 16 February, upwards of 20% of the world\u2019s population will be celebrating Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. According to the traditional Chinese calendar, which is based on the lunar cycle and the position of the Sun, the New Year changes each year, but always falls between 21 January and 20 February. There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals that represent years, and 2018 is the year of the dog.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nMarking this special day, we take a look at a Sentinel-2 image of Beijing, the capital of China. It is one of the most populous cities in the world, with over 21 million people, but during the New Year millions travel from the big cities back to their hometowns to spend the holiday with their families in what is considered the world\u2019s largest annual migration.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBeijing lies in northeast China at the northern tip of the North China Plain. While the city lies on flat ground, it is surrounded by mountains to the north and west (not pictured). From space, the city appears to be divided up into many squares, which is a consequence of it being one of oldest planned cities in the world. Beijing\u2019s present urban form was established in the early Ming dynasty \u2013 between 1368 and 1644 \u2013 with planning stipulating that the city should be a square encompassing nine avenues running&nbsp; north\u2013south and nine running east\u2013west.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWhile this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image details much of the city, a number of famous landmarks can be picked out easily. For example, lying in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City, one of China\u2019s largest and best preserved heritage sites, and Tiananmen Square can be seen.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nHappy Chinese Year \u2013 or X\u012bn ni\u00e1n ku\u00e0i l\u00e8 \u2013 to all.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThis Sentinel-2 image, which was captured on 3 May 2016, is also featured on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/spaceinvideos\/Videos\/2018\/02\/Earth_from_Space_Beijing\" >Earth from Space video programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2018\/02\/beijing\/17376873-1-eng-GB\/Beijing_small.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"96\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"8\"><\/p>\n<p>\nToday, 16 February, upwards of 20% of the world&rsquo;s population will be celebrating Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival. According to the traditional Chinese calendar, which is based on the lunar cycle and the position of the Sun, the New Year changes each year, but always falls between 21 January and 20 February. There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals that represent years, and 2018 is the year of the dog.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nMarking this special day, we take a look at a Sentinel-2 image of Beijing, the capital of China. It is one of the most populous cities in the world, with over 21 million people, but during the New Year millions travel from the big cities back to their hometowns to spend the holiday with their families in what is considered the world&rsquo;s largest annual migration.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBeijing lies in northeast China at the northern tip of the North China Plain. While the city lies on flat ground, it is surrounded by mountains to the north and west (not pictured). From space, the city appears to be divided up into many squares, which is a consequence of it being one of oldest planned cities in the world. Beijing&rsquo;s present urban form was established in the early Ming dynasty &ndash; between 1368 and 1644 &ndash; with planning stipulating that the city should be a square encompassing nine avenues running&nbsp; north&ndash;south and nine running east&ndash;west.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWhile this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image details much of the city, a number of famous landmarks can be picked out easily. For example, lying in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City, one of China&rsquo;s largest and best preserved heritage sites, and Tiananmen Square can be seen.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nHappy Chinese Year &ndash; or X&#299;n ni&aacute;n ku&agrave;i l&egrave; &ndash; to all.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThis Sentinel-2 image, which was captured on 3 May 2016, is also featured on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/spaceinvideos\/Videos\/2018\/02\/Earth_from_Space_Beijing\" target=\"_blank\">Earth from Space video programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-441779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=441779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":441780,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441779\/revisions\/441780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=441779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=441779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=441779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}