Temple of Heaven and West Part 1

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Last weekend I checked out the Temple of Heaven, southeast of the Forbidden City. It's where the emperor used to make sacrifices to bring good harvests. Today the area is a nice park around the central temple and other various sacrificial sites.

My roommate took a trip to the countryside and asked to borrow my camera so I included the best picture he took. The location is around an hour outside of Beijing.

This Friday we had our mid-terms which went very well in my case. Next week there is no class so tomorrow I'm starting out to Xining, in Qinghai province. It's about as far out of civilization I can get with only a week to travel. From what I hear the small city has a good mix of historical religious sites in the forms of Buddhist and Taoist temples and some mosques. The area around the town is also supposedly very beautiful with lots of mountains, cattle herds, and Qing Hai lake which is a huge and salty.

I'll be taking a train for 23 hours to get there Monday around noon.

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Photos

Shrine of Harvests
From the sacrificial mound

Temple of Harvests
Side view

Temple of Harvests
Interior

Temple
Forward view

The Country Side
My roommate took this