Beijing, Day 3 - Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace

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After a solid night of sleep, we got typical chinese breakfast again in the hotel - fried chicken, noodles, stir-fry veggies, not too shabby. Then we made our way to the metro and down to the east gate of Temple of Heaven.

Temple of Heaven

For some reason, I thought it was an actual Temple, but it is a collection of buildings in the park built in the early 1400's. We got our tickets easy enough (we were there soon after it opened) and walked through the gate. The first location to the right was the Animal Sacrifice Pavilion, which we skipped. Then we saw the seven-star stones, which have mountain motifs engraved on them, symbolizing the seven peaks of Mountain Tai, and intended to show a united country. The main site was the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, which you needed to check your ticket to enter. There were lots of people here already, but it was a large enough space that it did not feel too crowded, and there were even areas completely empty. The hall itself was quite impressive and the accessory structures were nice, but I really liked the accents on the glazed roofs and the sculptured balcony railings. So beautiful.

Next we walked passed the Imperial Vault of Heaven with the Echo Wall surrounding it. We did not go inside, but sat on a bench in the shade for a bit to cool down. Then we moved onto the Circular Mound Altar, which is within another wall and you walk up on steps to access. Again, I loved the accents of the glazed tiles as well as the entrance gates, which had what looked like teapots at the top. This area was quite busy, especially at the top of the mound, and it was busy all along the walkway from the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest to this point, again along a north-south axis.

We then continued along the pretty park, stopping at the Fasting Palace, where I believe the emperor stayed while fasting before the ceremonies. Then we continued on north through beautiful garden areas and came up on the Shanmian Pavilion and the beautiful Double-Circle Longevity Pavilion. I loved this long pavilion, with covered walkway painted in unique features, such as birds, fruit, bridges, landscapes on many of the supporting beams, and colorful reflecting the design of the Temple of Heaven Structures. It was my favorite stop here. So peaceful.

Then we left through the west gate after getting a much needed ice cream; mine was matcha flavor and in the shape of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Perfect. The metro was right next to the exit and we then continued on to our next destination: Summer Palace, about 17 stops away, after an immediate switch. This is the first time we encountered a super busy train and we could not even get on the first one! I was also amused with the background noises; tinkling music that reminded me of Squid games and a female announcer who spoke in Chinese and translated into English, followed by a male speaker who was louder and did not translate to English - what was that about?

Summer Palace

After squeezing onto a car and traveling for about 40 minutes, eventually getting a seat halfway through, we exited at the Northern Gate area near the Summer Palace. It was about 500m or so walk in the humid heat, and we first stopped at convenience store to get cold waters. We got tickets, including '4 entrance tickets' but no real program or map, so it was confusing - I saw a few people with maps, but was unsure where to get them. By this time, I think we were losing steam. Honestly, I did not know much what to expect about the area except my sister recommended it and she knows what I like. It was gorgeous. The Summer Palace was initially constructed in the 12th century when the capital was established near what is now Beijing. This area was a bit cooler than hot Beijing in summer (PREACH!!!), and was continually added onto over the years, including directing water works to fill in the main Kunming Lake which currently takes up 3/4 of the area. Our later guide also told us that the waterways were also constructed for easier travel to the summer palace. The design of the Summer Palace was based on Chinese mythology and on other places around China.

I do not know much about Chinese history, though this trip has encouraged me to look into it and I can't wait - but it is a lot to cover! However, from my brief research on wikipedia, it seems that during the Second Opium War, the British-French Allied army destroyed the Old Summer Palace in 1860 after looting the valuables, supposedly in retaliation for some executions (again, need to read up on this). Apparently, it took 4,000 men three days to destroy it because it was so big. Most of the looted artefacts are now housed elsewhere in the world.

We crossed over the Suzhou Creek, which leads to the main lake and noticed people getting on boats which looked like an option to keep in mind for later. Then you enter the grounds of a huge palace with accessory structures that are located on the back (north) side of Longevity Hill. This is the XuMi LingJing architectural complex, which was originally built during emperor QianLong's reign but was destroyed by the British-French allied army in 1860. It was finally reconstructed from 2019-2021. Without a guide or much info at site (and fast losing energy), I believe this palace was constructed to resemble a Tibetan monastery and contains Buddhist statues. It was a climb up steep stairs to the building itself, and you could look inside the windows. We were approached by a woman who offered to guide us (for money of course), but really.... we were struggling to keep interest.

So we walked towards the park area, continuing up and we got some great views of the Lake below... but it also seemed so far away! We found a little gazebo nestled within the rocks and downed our water. It was quite pleasant and quiet here; I knew down hill must be where it was busy because we had really seen relatively few people so far. We continued down and I used one of the usual nice public toilets which was in one of the older buildings. We walked through a gate, and were intending to find the east gate exit/entrance to leave when we wandered up to the Garden of Harmonious Interests. This was an amazing find and I was so happy. It was such a beautiful, peaceful setting - I really could have stayed here all day just relaxing instead of trying get as many photos as possible. Indeed we passed by two women passed out on the railing of all places, and some people laying on the floor in the main entrance building. It was an open air walkway surround a lily pad pond. The walkway was the typical intricately designed structure I had seen earlier and it was just beautiful, with the pond in the background, bamboo along the sides, the simple buildings, and just the general quiet. I loved it. We had been hoping to do a tea tasting, so we entered a cafe here at the garden, but the tea tasting was actually coffee, so we just got a passion fruit soda drink and left.

We headed through the streets between the buildings on the front side of Longevity Hill, enjoying the solitude and the architecture... and then we found the people! Honestly, it was almost an assault on the senses having so many people around after having walked in peace for the last two hours or so. We saw a couple of buildings with crowds lining up in front.... and this time, yes, we were definitely done! 😊

Afternoon Tea

I cannot stress how exhausted we both were at this point. I think it was a combination of heat, fatigue, hunger, and just walking 23,000 steps per day. We identified two metro stations, and I chose just to head back to the one we came from as they were same distance, and then we would walk past the place I thought was a hotel. L had previously recommended a tea tasting at this hotel, but I could not find on the map, so I figured it was worth a shot. And yes! It was the Aman hotel! It looked super fancy! But we walked up in our shorts and sweaty shorts to the lobby and they showed us to the back building where we could have afternoon tea! After confirming they took credit card, we ordered the special with two types of tea: XihuLongJing and LapsangSouchong. They were good. The finger foods included pumpkin tangerine scones (yum!), abalone with quinoa, french foie gras terrine with pistache and raspberry, ham and tuna sandwich, scallop with spinach, pistchaio raspberry financier, sesame nigrani imperial jade seal (? I think these were the lions), guave coconout mousse (yum!), vanilla pineapple cake, cherry mousse, and lime cream cheese tart. It was really nice (and expensive), but since it was my birthday, this was my celebration! So, yeah! We walked around the back garden a bit; the hotel seemed to be heavily themed on the Garden of Harmonious Interests - just lovely! And very friendly.

Last night in Beijing

Then it was time to take the metro back to the hotel, which was easier as this was the second stop, so we were able to relax until getting off. Straight to hotel. Pass out for a bit. I cuddled with ET (my stuffed animal my grandmom gave me on my 4th birthday and one of my earliest memories - he turned 40!). Later that night, we realized we needed some food, so made ourselves get up and go outside. We literally crossed the street and a woman stopped us to go into her restaurant. Sure. They had my favorite dish of the trip: fried eggplant! This was just amazing. And so simple. I was trying to figure out how they made it, pretty sure it is an infused oil (olive oil I may try) and then stir-frying it or something. I bought the supplies now and will try at home this week. Then we went back to the hotel to pack for the next adventure!

I also should mention that L had an app or something where you can translate characters, so one of the ways to pass the time was to try to come up with funny / interesting sayings. Some of my favorites: "you're still here. you're still down. you're still falling." or "8 never ends". "It's not because everyone is good."

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Comments

[Home and Away]

Happy birthday!
And what a nice way to celebrate. And thanks for the memories as my son and I went to these places in 2013. I had broken my ankle 8 weeks earlier so he helped with my mobility.

[D MJ Binkley]

Harmony
I'm impressed and tired with 23,000 steps. Fascinating.

[Ake Och Emma]

Palaces of Beijing
I love the various palaces and historical parks of Beijing. I have been lucky enough to be able to visit some of them more than once and att different times of the day. You sometimes get a different when going to the palaces early in the morning. I have also had time enough to visit minor temples and parks. Those are also nice even though most visitors skip them. If you are pressed for time it makes sence to skip them and because essentially they are just less glamourous variations of the major sites. /Ake

[lexispence10]

So much to see!
Yeah, there seemed to be a lot to do and see just walking around. It was so hard to plan and yet so easy to adapt to enjoy ourselves. While I would have liked to see Forbidden City, I was not devastated as there were so many other things to do!