Temple of Heaven & Houhai Lake

Today we toured the Temple of Heaven and the surrounding gardens. It was so beautiful. It was built for the emperor to pray for good harvests for the upcoming year. The Temple of Heaven is actually a collection of buildings all for the purpose of making the emperor's prayer time a success. There were kitchens to make the food offerings, animal pavilions to ready the animals for sacrifice, and dressing stages to get ready for the ceremonies. The main temple (see pictures) was made without a single nail!! All of this was surrounded by gorgeous green spaces including huge cypress trees.

We sat down on a park bench to have a snack and rest before moving on when a policeman rode by on his bicycle. Police are generally unsmiling and very stern-faced. However, this guy rode past the girls, then did a u-turn. He came back to visit with them....and even gave them hugs! He brought a guy who was selling birds back to visit the girls. Talk about breaking character!

We ended our day in the Houhai Lake area. Houhai Lake backs up to a large hutong (maze of alleyways). We found a perfect spot next to the water to sit and rest before dinner. This area is a string of bars, restaurants and shops. We had an afternoon drink and the girls shared cotton candy. There were a group of men building a new patio and they all came over to say hello. They were some of the kindest people we have met so far (there is a picture included with Meredith trying to tell them how old she is).

Some of our new friends recommended that we end our evening by having a meal at Hutong Pizza. This pizzaria was back in the maze of alleys but was some of the best pizza we have ever had! The girls ate a ton and we even took a doggy bag back to the hotel.

What a fun day we had!

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