Temple of Heaven and The Lama Temple.

Day 3 Beijing : 

We are up and at um enjoying a great breakfast. Currently the plan for the day is to subway to the Temple of Heaven, return before noon to hotel and check out, then transfer to our new hotel, drop bags and subway  to the Lama Temple, return to hotel and meet up with our group.  Piece o Cake. 

Some general observations on Beijing: 

1. There is no such thing as personal space, if this should bother you just get over it :) 

        2.  There has been no ban on Selfie sticks anywhere. 

      3. Many signs have an English translation which can be rather interesting. Today there was one telling you not to lean on the        subway door. The English translation was “Forbid to Beam On”. 

This morning we made our way via subway to the Temple of Heaven Park. This journey took less than 30 minutes. We arrived at the East Gate. 

The park opens at 0600 and the buildings open at 0800. The entry fee is 35 RMB. Arriving before 0800 you have to get a entry ticket to enter the park, at 0800 you then purchase a separate ticket for entry to the various buildings.  

The Temple of Heaven Park is a hub of activity in the common areas. Here local people exercise, dance, play cards, badminton, do Tai Chi, Martial Arts, fly kites, and many more activities. It appears each interest has it’s own area of the park for people to meet. 

The Temple of Heaven Park is where  the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasty held the Heaven Worship Ceremony.  Here they prayed and sacrificed asking for a good harvest. The park is 2,700,000 square meters and is larger than the Forbidden City. Here you find many gardens and groves of cypress and juniper trees. 

We started our list by first going to Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. This is the iconic round palace made up of three layers. Here prayers were said for good weather and a good harvest. For those who have been to EPCOT the China pavilion is modeled after this building. 

We next made our way to the West and visited the Flower Garden and the Rose Garden. 

Making our way back to the Imperial Walkway Bride or Danbi Bridge. The center of this walkway was reserved for the emperor and the side were for lessor members of the court. The South end is lower than the North end and thus one is ascending to heaven as they walk this bridge. Here one also finds the Echo Stones. 

Next we visited the Imperial Vault of Heaven. This building houses the God’s Tablets which were used at the Heaven Worship Ceremony. . Lastly we visited the Circular Mound Alter. Here is where sacrifices were made on the Winter Solstice. This is actually the Temple of Heaven. On the top level there are nine rings of stone around the center stone.

We then made our way back to the East gate passing many people enjoying their activities of interest. 

We took the subway back and stopped again at the local Hutong (local neighborhood) super market (a very small storefront) for water.  We then made out way to a nearby bakery and got some, you guessed it steam buns for lunch. One was filled with pork, one was filled with a rice mix, and the last was custard filled. 

Back at the hotel we packed up check out and went to the lobby to await our ride to our next hotel.   We were met by our driver a bit early, which worked for us, and were taken to our new hotel The Four Seasons Beijing. A very very nice property in the financial district where there is not much to see as compared to our last hotel which was centrally located. I believe the reason is tomorrow we will have a very early morning and this property is close to the airport.  This is necessary to avoid the heavy Beijing traffic. 

We got checked in and grabbed our day bags and were out the door headed to the Lama Temple. While walking through the lobby we met another couple we will be traveling with  on this journey. It turns out they were on the same flight as us from SFO. 

We had but a short walk to the Subway Station and soon we were at the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple is a spectacular  temple complex built in the 17th century. Here one can find Han, Mongol and Tibetan motifs. As one progresses to the final hall, one can not help but notice people praying and burning incense in offering. The final Hall is the Wanfu Pavilion where there is a 55 foot tall statue of the Future Buddha. This amazing carving is made from one piece of White Sandalwood.  This is a nice introduction to Tibetan monks and their dwellings. 

Near our hotel there is a McDonalds and we thought it would be fun to see what menu items would be different. What caught our eye was a green tea ice-cream. We fell victim to this offering and found it to be rather tasty.  

We made it back to our room, cleaned up, repacked and did a load of laundry, before meeting our group for a briefing.  

Water supply for the day.  

This Gentleman is taking his bird for a walk. 

Writing Class

This Gentleman was doing a badminton dance exercise. 

Bikes in Beijing Still serve many purposes.  

No beaming!!!

Gotta have an I Phone 

Spinning the Prayer Wheel 

The subway station near the Lama Temple