Blogs from Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China, Asia - page 5

The Temple of Heaven Monday morning and an early rise for me. 5.30am and I'm walking to the great park of the Temple of Heaven. I pass Tian'anmen Square where bus loads of chinese tourists are already wandering around in an orderly fashion following the yellow flag of their guide. This city is alive and kicking at this time of day. It took almost an hour for me to walk the distance. I enter the park and see many people enjoying their exercise. See pics. I'm asked to join in. So I play a game that is like badminton and pingpong combined. There are 2 bats each and you hit the shuttlecock on the full. It can also bounce. The next group of people are throwing rings of sand filled material like the door snakes that ... read more

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09.11.08 The sun has come back to shine over the city on our last day here. Time has come to pack our stuff again and get ready to leave. We decided to spend our last few hours in Beijing at the Temple of Heaven Park, just half an hour walking from the hostel. It is apparently the finest example of Ming architecture ever built. And it's truly amazing. Despite the fact that traditional Chinese architecture can look the same everywhere, these round buildings with sky blue tiled roofs, are stupendous. Here we reached the top of our popularity when a lady filmed us walking past when she saw us. We stopped for a coffee on the way back, and to the supermarket to make our “train survival kit”. It's quite hard to shop at the supermarket ... read more

Shane and I had planned on making today our Great Wall trip out to Mutiyanu, but the forecast was less than promising. Instead, we opted to book a taxi to the Great Wall on Tuesday and spend the day at the Temple of Heaven and the Back Lakes, or Hou Hai. It ended up being a really hot day instead- too hot for walking on the Wall, so we were pleased with our decision to spend it in Beijing instead. Navigating the subway out to the Temple of Heaven was easy. Such nice and modern subways and platforms compared to what we are used to in Toronto. We walked around the outskirts of teh Temple, past the busy traffic and beautiful red flowers still in full bloom. The Temple of Heaven is actually a series of ... read more

This morning, nearly 1,000 staff (400 from overseas plus about 600 locals) gathered on the steps of the majestic Temple of Heaven for a company-wide photo. It was an impressive feat, gathering 1,000 people together and getting them all to stand still and behave in the blazing hot sun. Only a team of Type A Control Freak Event Planners could pull this one off with such flair. The highlight of the morning was having a chance to walk through the Temple of Heaven Park. Emperors used to come to this temple to pray for good harvests, and today the park is a popular gathering spot for locals and tourists alike. Every morning around 6am, the park begins to bustle with activity - tai chi artists, card players, dancers, friends gathering... every inch of space provides a ... read more