Temple of Heaven, Beijing Zoo, Street Food, Night Market and a Pub.

Beijing Day 1

We were up early and down for breakfast at 0600. The Novotel Peace Beijing has a great breakfast buffet. Lots of choices from pastries, crepes, steam buns, and a nice stir fry and omelet station.  So much it is hard to recall it all, included an espresso machine.  A fried shredded pancake was good, tasted like potato and onion.  

There is a large tour group here finishing up as we arrived at 0600.

We gathered our gear for the day and made our way to the Metro station and took Line 5 from Dengshikou to Tiantandongman. The  Tiantandongman station is very close to the Temple of Heaven. First one must purchase a ticket to enter the park 10 Yuan ($1.50). Then if you want to visit the three main temples one need to purchase another ticket for 20 Yuan ($3.00). 

Originally constructed during the Ming Dynasty in 1420, the Temple of Heaven was a sacrificial temple used by emperors during Ming and Qing dynasties to appease the heavens, bring prosperity to the empire and ensure good crops for the coming year. Sitting in a large park, the three main altars – the iconic Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar. But there’s more to the Temple of Heaven than the magnificent altars, there's a huge park to explore. Sadly, the  Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, was reduced to cinders in 1889 after being struck by lightning, but it was soon rebuilt in the same Ming Dynasty style. 

Not EPCOT :) 

I love these roof decorations, The more important the building the more figures. 

As I said, the park is huge and well worth exploration. We found the crowds very manageable  during this off season. The down side to being here in winter is the Rose Garden is dormant. Yet it is fun to watch the many people exercising by dancing and practicing various forms of martial arts. You may also see people playing with a shuttle cock kicking it like Hacky Sack. 

These are water drains , pretty KEWL!

From the Temple of Heaven we made our way to the Beijing Zoo. Firstly, The Beijing Zoo is expansive to say the least. When visiting you first buy a ticket cost is calculated by what one wants to see. The added cost are the Pandas and Aquarium. There are other add-ons available during the summer months.  One of the main zoo residents are the Giant Pandas. There is a very nice enclosure for the Pandas and we were able to see several sleeping Pandas. 

Yep, sleeping Pandas were easy to spot. 

A nice zoo and would be worth a visit when things are green 

The animal enclosures are good, but most use glass as a barrier rather than a natural barrier. So most photos taken here are done through glass. 

Prior to our visit to the Beijing Zoo, I had learned there was a European Robin flying about the Zoo. It is unknown how this bird got so far away from its natural range. Anyway, there were about 50 local photographers we ran into trying to capture an image of the Robin. This Robin was rather elusive but I thing I got an OK picture. It was fun trying to communicate with fellow bird photographers. 

Weather this morning was rather cool, but with the sun out and very little wind, it got quite warm by afternoon.  The air is very clear for Beijing, which is normally rather smoggy,

Soon we made our way back to our hotel for a little break. 

We will be flying Cathy Pacific to Ho Chi Mien City and we are able to check in 48 hours before our flight. That we do and we were able to get our boarding passes printed with the assistance of the front desk staff. Business center computers are only in Mandarin. 

Tonight the plan is to go to the Wangfujing Pedestrian Street for some street food and the find Molly Malone's Gastropub for an after dinner drink. We were successful in fulfilling this evenings plan. 

The  Wangfujing Pedestrian Street is located off of Wangfujing Street which is a large pedestrian upscale shopping street mall. Think high end name stores and more. Off of this shopping street is a small narrow  street lined with street food vendors. The smell of the spices and cooking oil seem to prevail. Just about all the food here is served on a bamboo skewer. One can get just about any sort of insect, vegetable roll, seafood  , poultry and pork one can imagine. The Scorpion and grubs seem popular among just a daring few. We first had an ear of roast corn, we described it as field corn, not having much taste and heavy in texture.  Further down the street we find fried dim sum filled with pork with few veggies. I added chili sauce to mine and they were great and rather filling.  Lynn likes the yogurt drinks and soon we find her a one. They are served in a white milk style glass jar with a large straw poked through the paper cover.  These choices filled us up all for 46 Yuan or about $6.50 to $7.00 USD. The vendors are are very friendly and enjoy calling out to potential customers.

They were alive and moving 

These were great 

Be advised this a very very very busy crowded street and I am pretty sure we were the only Westerners to be there this evening. We were asked by one person for our photo, this can be common in China as people want a picture of themselves with a Westerner. I also think my grey beard is an attraction. We have experienced this on all of our trips to China. 

With all this said I feel street food and market visits are an essential experience of any journey one makes. A chance to meet and experience a bit of local life and learn about the people as I believe how people shop and eat will tell you much about them and their life. 

From the crowded packed night street market, we made our way back towards our hotel where I had learned of an Irish Pub. We soon located Molly Malone's Gastropub & Grill. This in a nice warm place and we were one of the very few patrons there. I was able to have a properly poured Guinness and Lynn a nice ginger ale. The staff only spoke Mandarin but we had fun and they gave us a yogurt drink to take with us. It was packaged like a juice box and will be good for our early morning departure. 

Oh Look A Pub !!!

Back to the hotel we went to bed tired and a bit sore from all the days walking. 

Thanks for following along on this journey. I hope you are enjoying some of the many many photos we have taken. Please share this blog with friends and family, many thanks to those who have. 

Scott and Lynn