http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Beijing , Temple of Heaven en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:54:05 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:54:05 UTC Today I went to see the Temple of heaven which is an old temple that the people of Beijing used to pray for good harvests. It is in a large walled park garden area just south of the center of Beijing. The main worshipping area consists of Three structures each is more impressive than the last with the second two having temple built on top. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-347324.html 09.11.08The 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 arch http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-345854.html Beijing Photos 01 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-337576.html Beijing's Temple of HeavenAnother of my many favorite places to visit in Beijing is the Temple of Heaven. It is very different from some of Beijingrsquos other imperial sites because it feels like a large public park with amazing architectural wonders sporadically placed throughout. It covers a huge area and most of it is covered with forests of ancient cypresses. I like wandering amongst them. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-317453.html This morning nearly 1000 staff 400 from overseas plus about 600 locals gathered on the steps of the majestic Temple of Heaven for a companywide photo. It was an impressive feat gathering 1000 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 mo http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-307887.html Following the tour of tiananmen square the forbidden city and jingshan park we headed south to the Temple of Heaven Park or 22825223632084422253. We tried to take bus 814 directly there but it never showed up so we just took a taxi. A little background Temple of heaven park is a paragon of Ming design the main hall has come to symbolize Beijing. The temple originally served as a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-302062.html Can you hear the drums waking the city of Old Beijing We began our morning at the drum tower listening to the ancient ritual wake the city. Twentyfive drums beat together representing the weather the time and the season. In ancient times the drums were a way of communicating important information from village to village. After the drumming ceremony we began our rickshaw ride through the ne http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-299835.html We arrived very early 7am and witnessed hundreds of Beijing locals practicing all manor of exercise forms from Tai Chi Kung Fu jogging and dancing. The whole ambiance of the park and the people in it was fantastic and very calming and peaceful. This was a special experience on our Beijing trip.Our Impression Reasons to visit the Temple of HeavenThis temple is very huge and beautiful and is sur http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-291989.html Before this point in our trip the Temple of Heaven is best known as the symbol of Beijing Draught Beer. Beijing Draught is a tropical style beer that I do not recommend for export outside of Beijing. The Temple of Heaven is a world heritage sight and was constructed about the same time period as the Forbidden City. It was built for ceremonies related to heaven and good harvest. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-290533.html Here are some pictures from the Temple of Heaven Park. This was where a lot of the retired and elderly people of Beijing seem to come weekday mornings for all sorts of cultural fitness and social activities. One of my favorite parts of the trip. There were way more activities than I have pictured here http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-288748.html Group was going on another art museumtea house excursion Wes and as well as about a dozen other students just said forget it and stayed back as these sort of smaller afternoon trips are optional. I really needed to do laundry haha and everyone's backed up on studying didn't wanna have to choose between the two when I got back tonight.Anyways also got a chance to get all my pictures in on http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-285764.html On Saturday morning we went to the temple of heaven which is situated in Southern Beijing a very very beautiful park which is meant to be a bridge between earth and heaven if there is a heaven and its anything like this place I'd be happy. We arrived very early 7am early for us and were witness to hundreds of Beijing locals mostly in there 50's and 60's practicing all manor of exercise regime http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-282709.html Although this entry is stated to be in Beijing it is actually an overview of all the places that I visited within China. So far China has been my favourite country because the food has been amazing and so varied. It is a good idea to eat in a group and share dishes to do it the traditional Chinese way. Loving the free tea that comes with most meals so don't forget to top up on that Jasmine tea is http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-280667.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-269824.html Or The delicate balance between giving in to exhaustion and sightseeing some more.During our few days in the Capital of the North that be Beijing bei indicating north. Like the US China had different cities as its capital at points in its history. The two most important ones are the Capital of the North and Nanjing the Capital of the South. I will let you figure out yourself what nan m http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-260731.html August 22 2007 Right now Irsquom sitting at the SWA gate B2 waiting for my plane to Chicago. It is now 10am and my flight doesnrsquot leave until 1140am. Irsquom excited about seeing Terina and Anthony again. My flight was a little late but I finally made it to Chicago around 2pm EST 1pm Chicago time. We met Anthony at his apartment then went to The Dark Horse for dinner and drinks http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-246629.html Goodbyes are always hardWell this will be my last post from Beijing as I am getting ready to go to the train station and catch my train to Xian so just a quick one.This morning I wandered over to the Temple of Heaven. It was very nice the parks were very peaceful and people were enjoying themselves singing picnicking exercising. On the way back I passed some of the older Hutongs which are be http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-224668.html On Tuesday we visited the Temple of Heaven silk factory a tour of the Hutong area by pedicab and finished the day with a Peking Duck dinner. No time to write now as i have just been moving the blog to this location. Cannot get through the Chinese blocling of Googles blogs at Blogspot. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-214077.html During our stay we stayed in 2 youth hostels one to the north of the city and the other more central. They were both in Hutong areas which are the old town with narrow streets a little dusty and dirty but full of people leading their everyday lives. Little shops line the streets from tiny dodgy restaurants to double glazing workshops. Here Phil found a taylor to take in his baggy shirt and http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-210535.html Well it has been a while since we last wrote but we have had a busy few weeks so I apologise for the late entries...After arriving back from KoyaSan a bit earlier than expected after Sarahrsquos little mishap we had a few extra days to spend with our dear friend Kevin. In these last few days in Tokyo we managed to go to the beach albeit in a gale force wind but we were persistent we also we http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-207624.html The Temple of Heaven Tian Tan in Beijing covers about 3 000 000 square metres. It is a bigger area than the Forbidden City. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. during the Ming Dynasty to offer sacrifices to Heaven not human I think which is the same time as the construction of the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven is enclosed with a long wall. The northern part within the wall is semicircu http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-207100.html I was wrong. It is possible to have a sunny day without smog in Beijing as proved over the last day and a half. Once the heavy rain of Monday night and Tuesday morning cleared away out came the sun between clouds and it has been delightful with a light breeze and temperature in the mid20s.Getting one's head around Beijing is hard. To begin it is BIG Think of the main business and top hotel a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-203614.html Before we say good bye to Beijing we visited the Temple of Heaven. As you enter the park there are hundreds of local people gathering together to practice different forms of exercise. There was an area for ribbon dancing ballroom dancing tai chi kicking a small sand filled ball and tai chi ball. I was very interested in the tai chi ball it looked so elegant and graceful that I bought a set http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-199965.html We've got to Tai'an and are starting to get our heads round midterm survival here. Everything's pretty good and I'm sure we'll enjoy it all. But just for now I want to rewind and write about what we did while we were still in Beijing.On Friday we saw the Forbidden City and Chris has been working on a post about this. He fell asleep before he could finish it on the night though and hasn't ha http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-198558.html Temple of Heaven and HutongsThat's ChinaMMM and I went to eat zha jiang mian at a restaurant the hotel recommended to us. The noodles where pretty good. Zha jiang mian is noodles with brown sauce made from fermented beans meat soy beans scallions etc. The waiters mix all the ingredients in front of you. A tasty mixture. However halfway through my noodles I found a short piece of hair At th http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-183870.html We arrived around 730 and caught taxi's to our hotel. Todays agenda was to see the 'Temple of Heaven' a land make to ancient Chinese traditions. The site is massive encompassing many temples exhibitions parks gardens and the main treat itself self. A spectacular sight let down by what is effecting all of Beijing in the run up to the olympic games next year being renovation works. The temple http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-178982.html Da jia haoThat's Mandarin for Hello everybody Impressed I'm sure. After an hour crash course in mandarin today that's about all I can remember. We spent 8 hours at the Asia Society learning how not to offend the Chinese. Here's hoping it all sticks after the 13 hour plane ride tomorrow. You all know how I hate to offend or insult but I may be apologizing a lot these next few weeks. Oh boy.Ever http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-178206.html After a well deserved early night last night Hanmu I got up early again this morning if only I could do this during school. We got some deep fried bread again and headed towards the Temple of Heaven. On our way we stopped about 2km away for breakfast 2 which seems to be a theme for us lately and had some type of bean soup freshly made tofu. We also had deep fried bread LOVE. We th http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Beijing/Temple-of-Heaven/blog-177961.html