Today was not as exciting as the previous one. We slept in a bit and had a 9:00 pick up time. The weather was overcast and 60 degrees. I think we were all tired so the weather fit our moods.
We were dropped off the the Temple of Heaven which is within Beijing proper and fairly close to our hotel. The Temple of Heaven itself is a misnomer. This is actually a park area with a temple complex made up of a few buildings. The largest building, Qinian Dian ( the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests), has become over time incorrectly called the Temple of Heaven.
Here is Qinian Dian where the Emperor would come once a year (on the winter solstice) and pray to heaven and his ancestors for good harvests:
These buildings are very beautiful and striking with the blue tiled roofs that you only see here. The circular roofs represent the sky and the blue represents the color of heaven. I like looking at the large carved marble slabs you see as you climb the marble platform to the temple. the Dragon represents the Emperor:
We were allowed to look inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests but once again, you are not allowed to go inside. We finished up here and made our way to the next one, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the echo wall. Our moods must have followed us because we don't have pictures of those.??? Just as well. The Imperial vault of heaven was not nearly as impressive as Qinian Dian.
Now remember that these "temples" are all situated in a really lovely park area. We enjoyed this much more than the buildings themselves, I think. Along the way, Jim got a couple of good shots of the younger two to try and get a good one of them after having a good one of Jim on the wall:
And the rest and most of this day at the Temple of Heaven was spent playing and people watching:
Across the street from this park is the Pearl Market. We ventured there first before going to the Temple of Heaven and quickly left because we suck at shopping together. I was in no mood to shop with dead weight around and 3 bored kids to boot. This turned out to be great for us in the long run. We return on a later day.
Next to the Pearl Market was a toy store. We also stopped there and bought 3 kites we had planned to fly in the park. Unfortunately it wasn't windy enough to give them a try.
We ended up back at the Ascott after 2:00 with no lunch and everyone crabby. We opted for a later dinner of Peking Duck which was fun.
Impressions:
1. This was our least favorite day even though we especially enjoyed the park and the beautiful buildings. The prior days of touring caught up with us and none of us were truly in the mood to tour. My favorite line regarding this was a conversation I over heard between Jim and Joe the morning we were getting ready to go: Joe says to Jim, "Do you want to fly kites or do you want to see more dead people stuff?"
2. Enjoy the park time if you can. It breaks up the day and the touring nicely. Hopefully you'll get a windy day.
3. It's not a good idea to rely on your spouse to get the lunch plans every day. She just might decide not to do it one day and see if you notice, and guess what, you didn't. She got tired of Subway and you couldn't find any edible (to us) food out and about.
Up Next: Last Day touring the Drum and Bell Towers. A great unplanned day!
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