Blogs from Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China, Asia

Today I met Peter my Beijing guide. I found Peter on trip adviser as I searched for local guides. He advertised as an independent guide and was thoroughly recommended by many other travellers. I initially emailed him in June and have remained in contact with himever since. We met at my hotel this morning. The opening exchange went a bit like this; Peter " hello Spencer, you from Autrailia?" Me " no I am from the uk" ( in a Chinese accent of course) Peter " no no you sound Austrailian, where in Austrailia you from?" Me " do you know Sydney? Near the opera house?" We headed off for a coffee and to plan the day. Peter told me that all the main sights in the city would be extremely busy because this week is ... read more

CHINA: Beijing...Tiantan...The Temple of Heaven. 700,000 workers & soldiers cleared up snow on 23 December 2002...300 pedestrians were treated in hospital for falling on ice...the highest snowfalls in Beijing in 138 years...and I walked around the Forbidden City that day...in a blizzard!!! The following day I visited Tiantan...The Temple of Heaven...and three visits over the years I will share in this blog...each quite different. Considering the magic white setting for my first visit...it is easy to see why it is one of my favourite places...and the symbol of Beijing. The glossy Beijing book I bought in Tiananmen Square while looking for a fur hat describes it as follows: "Located in southern Beijing, the Temple of Heaven was built in 1420, during the reign of Emperor Yongle. Covering an area of 2,730,000 m2, it was the sight ... read more

Hi all... Out and about in Beijing. Visited the Temple of Heaven, and had our first real run in with the hawkers of junky trinkets, rickshaws and over priced taxis. Inside the temple grounds was very pretty, and the parks was full of locals doing what they seem to enjoy in parks here... playing board games, playing musical instruments, dancing, singing, playing this odd little game where you kick this shuttle cock shaped thing back around a circle... So, in other words... you name it, they seem to do it in the Gardens and parks here. The temple was our first real look at one of these garden and building.. and showed us how good these guys were at building along compass lines. Lachlan has started to get the idea of wearing a hoodie... to try ... read more

We were up and out by 7.30 this morning along with CJ and Emily to explore Beijing some more. We headed straight to Jingshan Park where we got to experience rush hour on the subway which was completely manic and by the time we arrived at Jingshan we were covered in sweat from the trains, unfortunately it was other peoples sweat as we were packed in next to some very smelly guys on the train. Jingshan Park at that time of the morning was wonderful, it is set up high on a hill overlooking the Forbidden City and the views were fabulous. It was already starting to get hot and it was still very early in the morning so we knew it would be a warm day. We stayed in the Park for about an hour ... read more

Today was packed with adventures. First, we went to the Summer Palace where I saw a a lot of similarities to the Forbidden City in terms of architecture and paintings. It was a very serene area, I can definitely see why emperors would take their vacations there. We took a boat ride at the Summer Palace across the lake. The Temple of Heaven also had similar features. My favorite part of the Temple of Heaven was the area leading up to the Temple that is the center of Beijing. Many people stopped to take pictures. I liked both sites very much. One thing that struck me was the size of these two places. When learning about them, you realize that they are large, but do not think about exactly how big they are. Another interesting thing ... read more