The Temple of Heaven

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Once again we left early and went to our one attraction of the day. We have a lot of extra days in Beijing so we can take our time. Which is nice since the traffic here is pretty bad, it lets us take things slow and relax. Today we saw the Temple of Heaven, where the emperors since the Ming dynasty have been worshipping Heaven, as early as the 1300's. It was kind of overcast but still pretty cool and exciting. We walked around the whole park which had some awesome trails through rows of trees. When worshipping Heaven there were many different phases throughout the ritual with ceremonial sacrifices. There was also a phase of dancing and singing. Walking along the path you could see many people singing or dancing to music or doing Tai Chi on the paths. It was really relaxing. You could see the altar they used for animal sacrifices and also the actual temple of worship. When we had seen everything we went to the hotel and had the buffet lunch, then I got Jie to go with me and workout. Now we're back in the nice air conditioned hotel relaxing and we're about to play Chinese monopoly! I'm hoping it's like the American version in some way.

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Photos

Dragon Rooftop Ornament
I love these roof top ornaments

Me
hanging on the door to the temple